Octavarium
by DOTMW
Summary: Worlds apart, Will's daughter and Lyra's son find a rift in the worlds only to discover that life moves in circles and history often repeats itself...
1. Chapter 1

_From the desk of the Author: Isla de Ochenta_

_In all the worlds there are few things more fascinating than a simple circle. Artists, poets and musicians have used this geometric marvel for thousands of years as a constant source of inspiration. It is perfectly round, beautifully balanced…but by far the most fascinating fact about a circle is that no matter where you start you have to end in the same place. You could go around and around a hundred billion times and you would still end where you began. Try it: Pull a piece of paper and a pen out and draw a circle. Now place your finger on one point and try to find the end. Interesting, isn't it?_

_Now you may be asking yourself, "Why is he telling me this?", "What is the point of this random geometry lesson in the place of the usual fan fiction?"_

_Look at that circle again. Remember that shape. Everything about this story revolves around a circle. Life often follows patterns and chances that were once called "Once-in-a-lifetime" have a habit of coming back around. Déjà vu may become more and more common until it feels like the past has come back to life again. _

_And when you reach the end, you might just find that you have come full circle. _

_Sincerely, _

_The Author_


	2. Prelude: Goodnight Kiss

**_From the Library of the Author _**

_**Catalog Number R234567O**_

_**Universe: Gamma **_

_**Will and Lyra **_

_**The Mysterious Case of the Octavarium **_

_**Foreword by the Author**_

_I came across this story while perusing my library's shelves late one night. It was dark and I was desperate for entertainment since the inter-dimensional cable was cut. For reasons unknown, a large blue book with the number eight printed on the cover caught my eye. Absentmindedly I cracked it open only to discover the most unreal story I have ever come across. It was yet another continuation of one of the most beautiful and tragic love stories ever told. _

_Perhaps I should explain. You see, there are many worlds, each with their own similarities and differences. But each set of worlds are divided further into alternate realties, each containing copies of each and every world in them. _

_Confused? I thought so…_

_Each reality is radically different from one another but there seems to be one story that they all agree on. _

_A young girl named Lyra sets off to discover the secrets of Dust after her friend is killed by her father. Along the way she meets Will who becomes the bearer of the Subtle Knife in his search for his father. Will and Lyra then journey into the world of the dead, free the souls of the dead and bring down an evil god who was trying to control the worlds. Then, by falling in love, the Dust is saved but they must be parted in order to do so. So they say a teary farewell and part as the worlds are closed. _

_They all seem to agree that this happened. What they don't agree on is what happened next. _

_One reality says that Will and Lyra never find each other in the land of the dead and are reborn into two teenagers in the future. One regards Will and Lyra fulfilling an ancient prophecy and defending the Republic of Heaven. Yet another involves Will going after Lyra, deciding to die with her than live alone. Mysterious Clocks, an angel's kindness and the power of imagination have all conspired to reunite these doomed lovers for one last time. _

_Enclosed for your approval is another account of what happened after Will and Lyra parted. This story will summon old memories, conjure shadows of the past and unite two young people in their search for answers. What is enclosed may surprise you _

_It certainly surprised me…_

_Cordially Yours, _

_The Author_

_Prelude: Goodnight Kiss_

_We move in circles  
Balanced all the while  
On a gleaming razor's edge_

A perfect sphere  
Colliding with our fate  
This story ends where it began

Octavarium-Dream Theater

"_Sleep, baby, sleep_

_Your father tends the sheep_

_Your mother shakes the dreamland tree_

_And from it fall sweet dreams for thee_

_Sleep, baby, sleep_

_Sleep, baby, sleep"_

Lyra Silvertongue gently murmured the lullaby that Serafina had taught her as she gently rocked the infant boy to sleep while Pantalaimon gently nuzzled the newborn daemon. As soon as she was sure he was asleep she gently laid him down in his crib next to his sleeping fox daemon.

"He looks a lot like you do, you know…" Pan said as he hopped up out of the crib to join Lyra on the rocking chair.

"Yes…yes he does." Lyra admitted looking lovingly at her child.

"Except he's got his…" Pan stopped in mid sentence, looking up at Lyra. Her loving countenance was momentarily stricken with an expression of distress.

"No you're right Pan." She said looking at her son's dark black hair. "He has his father's hair." Pan nodded solemnly. The child's father was always a touchy subject around Lyra.

Lyra had met him at a party at Jordan College. His daemon was the first thing that caught her eye. She was a large brightly multi-colored cat, almost the opposite of Kirjava. If it wasn't for that, she may not have talked to him at all. It turned out that he was studying the History of England and Lyra was majoring in the Alethiometer. He was charming, sweet and funny: being with him made Lyra almost happy for the first time in years. They continued to see each other after the party, dating for a few months before finally deciding to make love. They were still young, both just twenty one, but Lyra was so bewitched by this handsome, charming boy that she would have done anything for him. Everything seemed to be going wonderfully for Lyra: all those years of loneliness and desolation seemed to be behind her. She thought she had finally found someone to heal her heart that had been wounded by Will's departure.

But as fast as her hopes and dreams were built up, they were brought crashing down all the faster…

It was one month later and Lyra's worst fears had been confirmed: She was late. At first she casually dismissed it as just being a little late. It happened to everyone, right? But as the weeks turned into months it became glaringly obvious: Lyra was pregnant. She was confused and scared: she was only twenty two when it happened. But she held on to the tiny shard of hope that her knight in shining armor who had carried her through all of her most troubling times would know what to do.

Once again, Lyra was wrong.

"I thought he'd be happy…" Lyra softly mused, tearing up slightly. Instead she got a nervous, cowardly sham of a lover. Once she had told him, he put a happy facade on. He left the house, saying he was going to tell his family and that he would be back soon and that everything was going to be wonderful. Only he never came back and nine months later, Lyra went into the delivery room alone.

Things had been a little rough after that. An unmarried mother was uncommon in Oxford but thankfully her friends around Jordan were more than willing to lend a helping hand. Even Serafina Pekkala had offered her several surefire sleeping spells and motherly advice. Dame Hannah had even taken her under her wing as an apprentice aleithometrist so Lyra was able to support her new child.

Lyra was gently brought out of her musings as her child turned in her sleep, brushing the lavender cover off of his tiny frame. Lyra bent over to gently tuck him back in and plant a kiss on top of his head. A single tear rolled down her cheek and dropped onto the baby's forehead.

"Goodnight Lucas William Silvertongue." She softly breathed in his ear. "Sleep well my darling."

The baby sighed and cuddled up against his daemon, unaware that as he was falling asleep, another child in another world was just waking up…

* * *

"Emily, I'm home!" William Parry called out, closing the door to his little Oxford flat behind him as he crossed the threshold. He looked around the flat, looking for signs of his wife. "Emily?" He called out again. He hung his coat up and entered the kitchen, feeling a familiar presence brush against his leg.

"Hey, Kirjava." He said, gently bending down to pet his daemon. Kirjava purred, enjoying this rare bit of attention. Ever since Will got married he could no longer pet her in sight of his wife for if he did it would have appeared as if he was stroking a patch of thin air.

"Where's Emily?" Will asked the large multi-colored cat.

Kirjava looked up at Will and instantly he knew something was wrong. "Oh, Will…I tried to stop her but…"

Will seized Kirjava and brought her up to eye level. "What happened Kir? What's wrong?"

Kirjava simply gestured to the kitchen table where a plain white envelope lay. He put the cat down and ripped it open hastily scanning the contents:

_Will,_

_I can't do this anymore. I'm too young to be a mother. One stupid mistake and my whole life is ruined thanks to you. Well, I've decided I'm not going to deal with it anymore. She's your problem now. I actually want to do something with my life instead of changing diapers and babysitting. Don't bother trying to find me; I'm going to the States to start over. Maybe I can marry a man because I love him instead of being forced into a relationship because of a child. Take good care of her, or don't. It's up to you because I don't care anymore. _

_Emily _

Will read it once, twice, three times all the while shaking with anger and grief. Finally he crumpled the paper up into a ball and hurled it at the trashcan.

"How could she?" he absently said to no one in particular. "How could she just…"

Will had met Emily a little after high school at a party a few fraternity friends were throwing. They started talking and eventually Will found out that her last boyfriend had died in a tragic car accident. Their mutual grief over the loss of a loved one was what originally drew them together and after a while they started to date: not the most cheery couple to be around but being with one another more than made up for it. Then one night, very inebriated, they managed to find their way home from a bar and stumble into Will's bed. It felt wrong somehow, each one wishing it was someone else they were with, but somehow being with each other served as a balm for their aching hearts.

A little while later Will got the news. Emily was pregnant and he was the father. Panicking, they decided to get married before the baby was due. It was still early and if they moved quickly they could still make it look like the child was conceived on their wedding night. So it came to be that they were awkwardly forced into a marriage that neither of them were ready for. They were too young to be husband and wife, let alone parents, but it seemed like the proper thing to do due to the circumstances. Nine months later, Emily gave birth to a baby girl. They named her Laura Victoria Parry; Laura because it was the closest thing to Lyra in their world and Victoria for Emily's grandmother. Everything seemed to be going well and Will thought that they could somehow salvage a happy life out of this horrible mess.

Just like Lyra, Will was proven sadly mistaken…

Post partum depression hit Emily like a Mac truck. Violent mood swings were common: one minute she'd be a radiant glowing mother and the next she was a sobbing, miserable mess. Will tried to help her in every way he could and for a while things started to get better. But now…

Will's musings were interrupted by the soft sound of a baby beginning to wake up. The soft sobs soon spilled over into full blown wailing. Will pushed his chair back and ran down the hall to the baby's room. He threw open the door to see his daughter crying in her crib.

"Oh, come here sweetie." He gently soothed picking his daughter up and gently rocking her against his shoulder. But no matter what he did, she wouldn't stop crying.

"You're holding her like a bomb you know." Kirjava said as she entered the room.

"I think I can hold my own daughter Kirjava." Will snapped angrily. This only succeeded in upsetting Laura even more.

"Put her head in the crook of your arm." Kirjava instructed, leaping on the rocking chair in the corner. Will did so and the crying seemed to slow a little but she was still sobbing with a passion. Panicking Will did the first thing that came to his mind. He sang her a song

"_Once there was a way to get back homeward  
Once there was a way to get back home  
Sleep pretty darling do not cry  
And I will sing a lullaby _

Golden slumbers fill your eyes  
Smiles awake you when you rise  
Sleep pretty darling do not cry  
And I will sing a lullaby

Once there was a way to get back homeward  
Once there was a way to get back home  
Sleep pretty darling do not cry  
And I will sing a lullaby"

Will got so engrossed in the song that he didn't notice that Laura had stopped crying and was now sleeping contently in his arms. He carefully stood up and walked her over to her crib where he lay her down underneath her lavender baby blanket.

Sighing, he stood up and looked at the face of his sleeping child. "What are we going to do, Kirjava?" he softly asked his cat daemon.

"I don't' know, Will." She replied softly. "I just don't know."

And so two children lay fast asleep as their parents watched over them. Neither of them knew that the other existed but as their minds drifted off into unconsciousness, cosmic forces were already deciding their fates. Their destiny was decided as soon as they had drawn their first breath.

* * *

_AN: Here we go again! Alright I just want to get the disclaimer out of the way so here is a list of the things I do not own. _

_HDM_

_Dream Theater_

_Golden Slumbers_

_That one Lullaby_

_I also gave a shout out to some of my favorite fics_

_The clock was from the Silver Clock by SmartyPants _

_The angel letting them see each other was from Time Will Tell_

_The imagination thing was from another FF I read a long time ago but it's not mine. _

_The other realties are from my other fics. See ya!_


	3. Act one, Scene One

_Act One, Scene One: Shards of the Past _

_I never_

_Wanted _

_To become_

_Someone_

_Like him_

_So Secure_

_Intent to live each day just like the last_

_I was sure I knew that_

_This was not for me_

_And I wanted so much more_

_But beyond what I could see_

_Still I swore that I'd_

_Never be someone like him…_

_Dream Theater-Octavarium_

* * *

"Lucas Silvertongue! It's six thirty-five! You're going to be late!"

Lucas groaned and pulled the covers tighter over his head, trying to block out the sound. _Just ignore her, _he thought, _and maybe she'll go away. Maybe she'll…_

"LUCAS!"

Luke let out an exasperated sigh and kicked the sheets off. Lazily stretching his limbs he staggered into the bathroom to splash some water on his face. The mirror over the sink revealed a teenage boy with thick, black, curly hair, vibrant blue eyes and a pale complexion. Yawning, he pushed his hair behind his ears and slunk to the closet to find something to wear.

The last day of school was always the toughest: finals were brutal and Luke always seemed to be bidding friends farewell for the summer. Some were going on vacations to Spain, France and Nippon while still others were going out into the workforce, their mandatory education out of the way.

Once again, Luke would be spending the summer alone in the house while his mother worked at Jordan College. Since Dame Hannah's death, Lyra had become the only aleithometer expert in the greater Oxford area and she was constantly being consulted by people of all kinds: generals wanting to know where to attack, old men wanting to know which of their children should receive their inheritance, even minor royalty came asking various questions about the affairs of the government. So for most of the day, Luke was alone.

Well, not totally alone…

Luke kicked a pile of blankets on the bed. "Kameo! Kameo get up before Mum has a bloody conniption."

A black snout peaked out from under the sheets. "Tell her I need five more minutes…" the nose mumbled sleepily.

Luke threw the blankets back revealing a small artic fox curled up in a ball. "Tell her yourself, we're going to be late!"

Kameo groaned and slowly stretched out. Her lithe, limber figure and snowy white fur made her one of the most beautiful daemons in Oxford. She secretly enjoyed the power such beauty came with using and abusing it at every opportunity to get what she, or Luke, wanted. Once Kameo was in a mild state of consciousness, they headed downstairs.

"Morning Mum!" Luke called out. "How did you…" Luke had to cut his sentence short as a book came flying at his head from out of the living room. Luke cautiously peeked around the doorframe to find the house in chaos.

Lyra was tearing the house apart, moving piles of junk and tearing things off walls in a frantic search occasionally muttering phrases like. "Where in blazes…Had it here last night…No, not there…"

"Alright, Mum?" Luke asked his refuge behind the doorframe.

"No, I'm afraid not." Lyra said, standing up and tucking her hair behind her ears. People who had known Mrs. Coulter could instantly tell that Lyra was her daughter. She may have gotten her passionate personality from Lord Asriel, but her beauty clearly came from her mother's side.

"I can't seem to find my aleithometer." She said, moving a pile of magazines. "Any luck Pan?" she called.

Pan stuck his head over a pile of books like a gopher popping out of his hole. "No luck over here. Try the dining room."

"I thought I saw it in the kitchen on the counter." Luke offered helpfully

Lyra looked up suddenly. She made her way over to the counter covered in piles of papers and slid them into a trash bin, revealing the little black bundle.

"Oh, thank you." She said tucking the bundle into her worn, green rucksack. "Now I just need to find my books…"

"On the kitchen table."

"Right. Well, what about my lecture notes?"

"On the nightstand" Luke replied, grabbing his backpack.

"Glasses?"

"On your face, Mum." He said, breaking a few eggs in an iron skillet and heating them up to make an omelet

Lyra reached her hand up to touch the gold rims surrounding her eyes. "Oh…right."

Luke rolled his eyes. Sometimes his mum personified the absent minded professor. If it wasn't the books, it was the lecture notes, or glasses, or Pan…It seemed like her brain was constantly scattered over a hundred different things at once.

"Right, well I'm off." Lyra said moving towards the door. "Oh, and I'm going to have to stay late tonight. Will you be okay for dinner?"

Luke sighed. "I dunno…"

"Don't know." Lyra swiftly corrected. Luke rolled his eyes. Leave it to the grammar police…

Lyra looked at her son sympathetically. "Sorry, Luke, but the Master of Jordan is coming down and I can't afford to miss this." With that she, Pan, and her overflowing rucksack disappeared out the front door.

Luke sighed and threw his omelet in the trash bin. He had suddenly lost his appetite as he imagined the bleak and lonely summer before him. He threw a sandwich and an apple in his backpack before setting out the front door.

"Let's go, Kam. If another boring summer lies ahead of us then we might as well get a jump on it…"

* * *

"Laura! You're going to miss the bus!"

Laura Parry groaned and tried in vain to block out the sound of her father's voice with her comforter pulled tightly over her head. _Ignore him, _she thought. _He can't keep it up forever and sooner or later…_

"LAURA!!!!"

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Laura kicked the covers of her and stood up. Brushing her dark blonde hair out of her eyes, she dove into her closet looking for an outfit to wear.

"LAURA!!!"

"Coming, dad!" she shouted, slipping into a pair of jeans and pulling a sweatshirt over her thin frame. Running down the stairs, she walked in on her father cooking up an omelet.

"Morning." He said eying his daughter's attire. "You do know that it's May, don't you?" he said, commenting on her sweatshirt and jeans.

"Well I didn't exactly have time to pick out a suitable outfit." She said shortly, grabbing a Pop-Tart from the cabinet. "I have to go. Bye Dad!"

"Wait." Laura turned around swiftly to face her father.

"Yes?" she said, tapping her foot in pure annoyance.

"I have to work late tonight, are you going to be alright for dinner?"

"I don't know…I guess…"

"Great. The bus is here." He said dryly turning back to his omelet.

Laura sighed as she walked out the front door and into the warm summer morning. She truly hated her father's job. The vice-presidential position at one of Oxford's most prestigious law firms may pull in six figures, but it seriously put a cramp on Laura's relationship with her father. He would work all day then come home around ten and go right to bed. The only time she ever saw him was on the weekends and even then he was constantly in a surly mood.

Oh well, she thought as she stepped up into the bus. Another boring summer…

* * *

"Will you cut that out?" Kameo asked Luke, furiously.

Luke was laying on his bed after school, bouncing a ball off the wall with his left hand and catching it in his right. The dull, repetitive, _thud, thud, thud, _was annoying the white fox daemon.

"Sorry." Luke mumbled, tossing the ball onto a pile of clothes in the corner. "It's just that…"

"What?" Kameo asked propping herself up on a pillow, looking at her human's troubled expression.

"It's just that I'm so damn BORED!" Luke sighed, standing up and moving to his window and peering out across the street at the university's botanic garden. "Every summer it's the same bloody thing! Mum works all day and I'm stuck here alone doing absolutely nothing!"

"Why don't we go out with some friends?" Kameo suggested helpfully

"Like who? Mike is going to the States to visit his uncle; Kevin is taking cooking lessons in France; even Carla is going bloody tiger hunting in Malaysia! But not me, oh no! The closest thing to an adventure I've ever had is taking the wrong train and winding up on the other side of town!" he flopped down on the bed, causing his daemon to bounce a little. "I just want something, anything, to happen to break this mind numbing monotony…" he sighed, stroking Kameo behind her ears.

"Cheer up, Luke." She said, nuzzling his hand. "Let's take a walk before Mum and Pan get home. You could use the fresh air."

Luke sighed and sprung off his mattress. "Alright." Luke grabbed his coat, his wallet and a watch and headed for the door. As the cool summer air rushed in the now open door, Luke cast a glance back at his empty house.

"What is it?" Kameo asked

"I-I dunno." Luke said. "It…it feels like I'm not coming back here for a while…"

"Don't be ridiculous," his daemon chided. "We're just going for a walk through the garden. We'll be back in half an hour tops."

"Yeah…I guess you're right." They stepped out into the warm summer evening but even as the crossed the street, Luke couldn't shake that feeling. He had a strange premonition that something was about to happen to him.

In less than an hour, he would be proven right…

* * *

"GET THE FUEL ROD GUN!" Laura yelled into her Xbox live headset at her teammate in Japan. "HE'S GETTING INTO THE BANSHEE!!! SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD! SHOOT HIM IN THE HEAD! YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO RELOAD JUST SHOOT HIM IN THE…AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Laura screamed as her player exploded in a bright ball of flame and bright red letters saying BURNINATED! Flashed across the screen (_AN: NAME THE GAME!!! QUICK! QUICK!!!) _

"IT'S CALLED COVERING FIRE YOU LOSERS!!! I SUGGEST YOU PEONS BRUSH UP ON IT BEFORE YOU _DARE_ SHOW YOUR FACES ON MY SERVER AGAIN!!!" She yelled into her microphone as a stream of Japanese curses flowed out the earpiece.

She threw the headset down in disgust and switched off the TV. Video games always seemed to raise her blood pressure and enhance any bad mood she was presently savoring. Since she didn't want to deal with the mindless rabble of the online community, Laura found herself without a means to entertain herself.

_Well dad's not home so we could always poke around his office… _A little voice chimed in from Laura's head.

_No! _Another little voice butted in. _Father would not like us browsing through his personal property! _

_Don't listen to her! _The evil voice said again. _She's gonna try to lead you down the path of righteousness and purity! Stick with me and I'll lead you down the path that ROCKS!!!!!_

_There are__plenty of other wholesome activities we could do without disturbing father's study! _The moral voice replied.

_Like? _

_Um…there's…well_

Laura shook her head putting an end to the inner turmoil. She turned her head towards the oak doors that opened into her father's private study. Ever since they had moved to the tiny flat Laura had never been allowed within a nuclear blast radius of the study. In fact it was after her father's annual visits to the Botanic Garden that he would barricade himself within the book covered walls and sulk for the remainder of the day. Laura harbored a powerful curiosity as to what was inside but the threat of discovering something shocking and disturbing about her father had always kept her away. Laura stood up looking at the door, almost as if it were calling her name. Finally boredom overcame her doubts and fears.

_Good girl. _The evil voice chimed in as she made her way towards the door. _Or rather, bad girl…_

* * *

Luke carelessly skipped a stone across the small pond. He watched it skip once, twice, thrice before submerging on the far shore with a resounding plunk. Luke allowed his eyes to travel up from where the rock landed to a small bench underneath the branches of a low hanging tree. His eyes lingered on the bench for a few seconds. There was something strange about the bench and although he couldn't put his finger on it Luke felt drawn there by some strange and invisible force. A powerful sense of foreboding suddenly overcame him and he had to look away.

"What's wrong?" Kameo asked, feeling her human's fear.

"I-I dunno." He stuttered, swallowing hard. "I know it sounds stupid, but it feels like that bench…I dunno. It's like our fates are tied to that bench…"

"Hmmm…well, you're right about one thing."

"Really? What?"

"That DOES sound really stupid."

Luke tossed a pinecone (_Do pine trees grow in England?) _at his daemon who barely got out of the way in time. The playful quarrel diverted his mind from the ominous piece of garden furniture long enough for the matter to slip his attention.

Suddenly, Luke heard a soft meow and felt a warm presence rub against his leg. HE glanced down to see a stray tabby cat rubbing against his shin. She was a large cat, about the size of the fox daemon at his other side, with brightly multicolored fur. Her most shocking features were her large, electric blue eyes that glowed with an almost eerie sort of intelligence.

Kameo tentatively sniffed the cat before retreating behind Luke's leg. "Luke, I don't like her!" she said fearfully, "There's something funny about this cat."

"Oh come on, Kam, she's perfectly harmless." Luke said extending a hand to touch the cat. "Aren't you kitty kitty?"

The cat purred softly. Then, without warning, she pounced at Luke, tackling him to the ground with unnatural strength. Before Luke could even cry out she leapt off of him with something gold in her mouth.

"My watch!" Luke cried out in dismay. "That mangy feline got my watch!" The watch had been a birthday present from his mother and to see a scruffy street cat run off with it was too much for Luke to bear.

"Oooh, you picked the WRONG GUY YOU THEIVING RAT!" Luke seethed before scrambling off after it with Kameo fast at his heels

* * *

.

Thirty minutes later, Luke and Kameo had chased the cat to a remote part of the garden. The foliage here was older than and not as manicured as the rest of the exhibits. Tall, lean hornbeam trees created a small circular grove shielding the leaf covered ground from most of the sun. A few rays penetrated the branches, illuminating dust particles as they drifted down from the branches.

The cat looked back, the glittering timepiece dangling from its jaws. As Luke hopped a fallen log. He couldn't help but feel like the cat was leading them somewhere. Finally the cat stopped, standing in the middle of the small grove as the boy and his daemon entered the clearing.

"Alright you…" Luke said, bending over while trying to catch his breath. "You give that here or else I'll…"

"Luke." His daemon quipped.

"What?"

"Are you actually threatening a tabby cat?"

Silence

"Alright smartarse! You get it then!" Luke sneered, crossing his arms

"Right! C'mere you silly little bleeder!" Kameo lunged and ran full force at the cat with a murderous look in her eye. NO ONE dragged her and her human across Hell's half acre, dirtying her usually pristine white fur and got away eith it. The cat, for all the world, looked amused at the daemon's fury. As Kameo closed the distance between her and the cat, the cat sat back on his haunches as if he was about to pounce. Finally he sprang forward at the charging fox…

And vanished.

Kameo tripped over herself in surprise, tumbling into a yipping, flailing ball before coming to a rest where the cat had vanished.

"Whe…wha….wh…WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!?!?!" Luke managed to spit out, gawking at the patch of air that had been a cat a few moments earlier before running over to aid his flustered partner.

"I dunno…" Kameo said, walking around the spot, sniffing here and there. She walked around to where the cat had jumped when she suddenly jumped back, fur bristling and teeth bared.

"Kam, what is it?" Luke said apprehensively, eyeing his daemon's sudden mood swing.

"I…I…I….oh, just come here and look!" she said fearfully eyeing the spot in the air.

Luke walked around to where his daemon stood. As he slowly followed her gaze from the ground up, he noticed with a start that in one particular spot the foliage was totally different from the surrounding area. The brilliant green grass seemed to grow in one spot only and was only visible from the angle he was looking at it from. The trees in the background were different as well. Tall oak and cedar trees replaced the hornbeams and cast longer shadows over the ground, contrasting sharply from the patches of sunlight that appeared only a few feet before. Even the smell was different. Luke couldn't quite place it, but the air smelled…dirty; like the air after a fire had burned for a long time.

"What d'ya think it is, Luke?" Kameo asked fearfully pawing the air spot.

"I dunno, Kam, it's like it's…." They were both thinking the same thought but neither dared to mention it. It was just too absurd.

"A whole different world..." a voice said.

Luke and Kameo spun around to find the owner of the voice but there was no one there. It was as if the voice came from thin air. Forgetting about the watch, Luke and Kameo shared a glance fearful glance before tentitivily crossing the threshold into the unknown garden that lay before them.

In the park, under a tree, was a cozy bench made of wood. Instead of the usual Midsummer's occupants, a young man with dark brown hair dressed in silk short-sleeved shirt and long black pants took their place. He looked up from the thick leather book he was reading to check his wristwatch for the fifth time that hour. His head snapped up as he heard leaves rustling behind him. A large multi-colored cat padded up from behind a bush with a watch dangling from her mouth. The young man chuckled and stowed his book in his leather rucksack.

"You're late." he said simply, speaking in an icy French accent.

When he turned to face the cat again, she was gone and a beautiful teenage girl stood in her place.

The girl spat the watch out of her mouth and twisted the chain around her fingers. "He fell behind." she replied in a similar accent. "I had to double back just so I wouldn't lose him." Throwing him the watch

"So he found the window?" he said eyeing the timepeice before slipping it inot his pocket

"Yes." she replied. The young man breathed a sigh of releif, visibly relaxing. The girl bit her lip and looked away.

"We both know you want to say something, Delila. Let's here it." the young man said, turning to .

"You're risking a lot you know!" she finally said, fear creeping into her voice. "If they find out what you are doing they'll..."

The young man whipped his sunglasses off and locked eyes with her. She gasped: no matter how many times she saw them, they still seemed unnatural. Eyes weren't supposed to be that color...

"Then you had better make sure they don't find out." he said simply. With that, he drew a intricate obsidian blade from his pocket and pricked his finger with it causing a drop of blood to fall to the ground. The blood spread rapdly on the ground, blackening as it expanded far beyond the quantity of one drop. The patch of black imploded and began to draw everything into it.

The young man turned back. "You coming?" he asked before stepping into the portal and vanishing. The girl looked nervously around before joining him. seconds later the portal vanished, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.

* * *

.

Laura had finally jimmied the lock to her father's study open after nearly half an hour of work. She tried all lock picking techniques known to man, hairpin, credit card, chisel and hammer, nail file and staple remover before going for the slightly unorthodox coat hanger and chewing gum. The oak doors finally groaned open, revealing the handsome oak-furnished study. A desk sat in front of an open window with a perfect view of the Oxford skyline housing a collection of official looking documents. Shelves upon shelves of books lined the walls, creating multicolored wallpaper consisting of the different colors of the spines.

While all of this may have been impressive to a doctor or a lawyer, Laura found it quite boring. She was about to head out the door and watch Monty Python's Flying Circus re-runs when she collided with the book case. The massive oak monolith of literature rocked back and forth, nudged by the sudden jolt it had received. Laura flung her hands up to stop it but it was too late. At least three hundred books came crashing down on her head. Laura sat up and looked around. The once pristine study was now a disaster area of fallen books.

"Damit!" Laura swore. Panicking, she grabbed handfuls of books and started shoving them back on the shelf haphazardly.

Thirty minutes later Laura had replaced almost all of the scattered books. As Laura picked the last one up, something made her take it off the shelf again. She held it up to her ear and shook it. A faint rattling sound came from within.

"Books don't rattle…" she mused to no one in particular. Upon further investigation, she discovered a small keyhole on the cover. Smirking to herself, she popped another piece of gum in her mouth and took a coat off of its hanger.

Five minutes later, the book safe snapped open. Laura pulled the cover back to reveal the contents that her father had worked so hard to keep secret from her. Inside the box were thirty two shards of metal and a charred wooden knife handle…

* * *

_AN: FINALS ARE OVER! I'M BACK BITCHES!!! K got to get the disclaimers out of the way_

_The game is Halo_

_The book is HDM_

_The song is Dream Theater_

_Kameo is from Kameo Elements of Power (Not a very good game...) _

_The path that rocks is the Emperor's New Groove_

_And of course Monty Python is Monty Python_

_I own NONE OF THEM!!! _

_And now for something completely different…._

_It's…review time! R&R and I'll see U next time!_


	4. Act One Scene Two

_Act 1 Scene Two: Colliding With Our Fate _

Laura spent the next hour and a half sorting through the contents of the book safe, examining the blackened wooden handle, turning the pieces of metal this way and that, holding one up to the light and noting how it reflected the sun's rays. It looked like a perfectly ordinary blade and Laura couldn't determine why her father would keep a broken knife around without going through the trouble of re-forging it.

Laura rubbed her eyes and glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was now six thirty. Her father wasn't due home any time soon so she had plenty of time to figure out how this knife came to be in her father's possession and why he guarded it so…

Laura's ears perked up as something caught her eye in her father's study. She was sure she closed the door after her little venture with the books but now it stood wide open, banging against the wall as wind coursed in through the open window (which she couldn't remember opening.)

Laura edged over to the closet where she kept a cricket bat at the ready for just such occasions. Pressing her back flat against the wall, she carefully edged around until she got to the opening. Silently counting to three, she spun around into the room swinging her bat wildly.

Laura stopped when she realized she hadn't hit anything. She chuckled nervously and was about to turn around and write it off as her mind tricking her, a plaintive meow –came from behind her father's desk.

Laura jumped about a foot in the air and swung the bat in an arc, looking for the source of the sound. She finally worked up the courage and peeked over the top of the desk. A large, brightly multicolored cat sat in her father's chair as if she owned the place. Strangely enough, she carried a large gold pocket watch in her mouth and looking at Laura like she was supposed to take it.

Taking the silent cue from the cat, she accepted the watch and put her bat down to examine it. It was about the size of an Oreo but about thrice as heavy. She opened it up to reveal the silver hands on a clear crystal face which currently read six thirty five. She turned it over to see an engraved message in the back of the clock

_TO Luke_

_Happy Sixteenth Birthday_

_Love Mum and Pan _

Laura absently wondered who Luke was as she turned and started to walk out the door when someone from behind yelled

"GOTCHA!"

Acting on instincts gained from watching nineteen straight hours of Chuck Norris movies, Laura spun around and swung her bat in a perfect arc, colliding with her assailant. Something white and fluffy crashed headlong into the plank and sailed out the window into the neighbor's rose bush like a furry baseball.

As Laura ran to the window to investigate the source of the calamity, a boy of about sixteen fell out of the bush under the window, clutching his face and writhing in pain. Laura lunged forward and, with a move she learned from a Walker Texas Ranger episode, dragged him in the window and slammed him down on her dad's desk.

"Alright then, who are you?" Laura demanded, pointing the tip of the bat at his chest like a sword.

"Agh…you hit me in the bloody face!" He cried, still clutching his nose

"I didn't hit you; I hit the fluff ball you threw in the window now as I was saying…"

"KAMEO!" he cried throwing Laura off his chest and jumping out the window into the rose bush. He emerged carrying a slightly dazed looking artic fox with bits of thorns stuck in her fur.

"OH BLOODY HELL!!" the fox spoke from her spot in the boy's arms. "She hit me in the face, Luke!"

"Well if you hadn't snuck up on me then maybe I wouldn't have to…" Laura quickly shut up when she realized what was going on. The tiny white fox had just _spoke_ from the boy's arms. Laura opened and closed her mouth in a feeble effort to make something that could pass for intelligent conversation but the sight had rendered her speechless. She leaned out the window to get a better look but she lost her balance and fell head over heels into the bush the boy occupied only moments earlier. Her cricket bat flew up and hit her in the forehead as it came crashing down. The last thing Laura remembered before darkness swallowed her vision was the strange boy running to her side…

* * *

"Not so funny, now is it?"

Laura groggily opened her eyes to see the fox leaning over her with a small smirk playing across her features.

"Aww Luke, looks like Sleeping Beauty is waking up. I thought you needed a kiss from a prince…" The fox mocked as her human partner appeared by her side.

"Hi, um…how are you feeling?" The boy, whom she figured was named Luke said.

"Guhhhh…how long was I out?" Laura asked, sitting up to find herself on the couch in her living room.

Luke flipped open his newly recovered pocket watch. "About ten to eight. We moved you here after you blacked out. I figured you lived here so I thought…"

"Course I live here! Why else would I be lurking in the study with a bloody cricket bat?" she snapped, rubbing her pulsing head.

"Err…right." Luke said sheepishly fiddling with his watch chain.

Laura shakily propped herself up on the couch and surveyed the intruder with suspicion. If he was here to rob or kill her, he would have done so already instead of staying to make sure she was alright.

"Where'd that cat get off to?" She asked groggily

"Dunno. She must have run off when we weren't looking." Luke answered

"So…care to explain how you found yourself sitting outside my window with your magical talking fox, which I'm still thinking is some kind of aftereffect from the knock on the head?"

"Aftereffect?" the fox said sitting up in an indignant fashion. "Moi? If I was an aftereffect then how is it that you heard me before you took a graceful swan dive into the hydrangeas?" the fox retorted smugly

"Touché." Laura conceded, still not believing that she was holding a conversation with a fox. "So…what are you anyway?"

"I'm a daemon, aren't I?" the fox said as if it should have been plainly obvious that she was a daemon.

"A demon? Like horns and fangs and fiery brimstone kind of demon?"

Luke and the fox shared a confused expression. "No, Kameo is just a regular daemon like everybody else's. Like yours"

"Mine?" Laura asked.

"Yeah…the daemon you were born with…" The fox called Kameo said in a tone that reminded Laura of a teacher trying to teach multiplication to a particularly thick student.

"Yeah, we hadn't seen him around so…" Luke began

"I thought he was a tick or something." Kameo finished earning a glare from Luke

"Okay, look, I don't have any clue what you're talking about but I have never heard of talking fox demons. The only ones I've heard of are the big red honed ones that spit fire and prey on the souls of the innocent. A demon is…something evil."

"So…what you're saying is that…you don't have a daemon?" Luke said slowly as if he was trying to comprehend something impossible.

"Nope." Laura said with a sense of finality

"No." Kameo breathed disbelieving

"Yep. No one does."

"But that's insane! Everyone has a daemon, otherwise they wouldn't be human!" Luke said.

"Well I've never seen mine. I think I would have seen a talking fox by now." Laura said wearily

"You…must have a daemon. It…just…must…be….invisible!" Luke said finally, trying to justify this new revelation.

"You know I hate to interrupt this metaphysical speculation but…do you know that you two are spewing about six different kinds of chocolate coated INSANITY." Laura said, standing up. "If it weren't for the fact that I heard the fox talk for myself I would call the cops and cart you off to the funny farm! The fact that she's spewing anything at all is the only reason that the two of you are still breathing free air!"

"Wait, where are you going?" Luke asked, standing up with her, writing off her tirade as a side affect of the bat to the head.

"To the kitchen. I'm getting hungry. You hungry?" Luke nodded, getting up and following her with Kameo at his heels. . "Good. Then the two of you are going to explain everything to me over dinner! God… I don't know why, but I have the strangest craving for omelets and Coke…"

* * *

A dark young man stroked his chin thoughtfully as he surveyed the scene before him. A thick black pool swirled before him revealing a small English kitchen where a blonde haired girl was scrambling eggs in a bowl while a dark haired young man was struggling to comprehend the complex inner workings of a Coke can.

"So how do I get this open again?" The boy's voice called out from the pool, his image rippling as he turned the can this way and that.

"Just…pull the tab back." The girl said, now melting butter in the pan.

The young man nervously looked over his shoulder as the door opened behind him, casting a thin beam of light in the otherwise dark room. Four figures obscured the light casting long shadows into the room

"You asked to see us Monsieur Morelon?" A smooth American accent asked the young man from the door.

Morelon sighed. "Ah yes, come in gentlemen." The four figures strode into the room and promptly shut the door, obscuring their faces so that only their profiles were visible.

"I understand that you four have a knack for…ah…apprehending those that have proven themselves elusive, oui?" the man went on

"You bet! Best bounty hunters in the known galaxy!" The largest of the figures said proudly in a thick Jamaican accent, flexing his large muscles.

"Bon." Morelon said with a faint smile that was swallowed by the dark he gently touched the water revealing Luke holding the exploding can of soda away from his face as it spewed its contents all over the kitchen, soaking Laura and Kameo. "You see these two? I want you to bring them to me."

"Dead or alive?" a soft feminine voice asked from her spot beside the large one.

"Oh! Alive!" Morelon said flustered. "Yes, yes…I don't want them harmed…permanently at least. Do everything you can to bring them back alive and unharmed."

"And…what kind of compensation can we expect for our trouble?" the final figure, tall and cloaked up to his eyes, spoke from the corner.

Morelon reached under the pool and pulled out a large sack and set it on the table with a clink. The first figure stepped forward with the sound of a sword being drawn from a wooden scabbard. A flash of silver and two parallel slashes appeared in the bag, spilling thousands of marble sized diamonds on the table and into the black pool.

"You get this one now and five more when you bring them back to me. Do we have a deal?"

The swordsman stepped into the light cast by the swirling pool. His pale face and long white hair was illuminated in a way that made him look like a ghost. He sheathed his double bladed sword and held a diamond up to examine it. Smiling he turned back to Morelon with a slightly sinister grin.

"Congratulations, sir. You have procured the services of the Marauders …"

_Ooooooo! Thanx for reading! Disclaimer: You know i don't own HDM..._


	5. Act 1 Scene Three

_Act One, Scene Three: Past and Present Collide_

Laura came back in the kitchen, wringing her messy blonde hair dry of sticky sweet soda that had gushed all over everything in the kitchen. Luke was sitting at the table, throwing bits of omelet up for Kameo to snap up in her jaws.

"Finally cracked the mystery of the Coke can, then?" Laura said, grabbing a sheet of paper towels and trying to mop up the mi_st_a**kes** her f**orb**ears hAd s_t__**re**__wn_ about the wOrlds.

Luke laughed as he sipped the frothy foam off the top of the can. "Yeah, it took a few tries," Luke said, gesturing to a pile of cans in the sink CrU**mPl**Ed lIke thE b_OD_ies oF oNE-HunDrEd ThO_usa_nD rOTTing _cORpsES StREWN_ LiKE F_IlTHY_ VerMIn aCross VacAnt meTroPolises tHat sErvE aS tEste_Mant_s tO tHe dArK aNd BlOoDy HiStOrY oF YoUr SaVagE RaCe

…

…

…

…

…

…

……

……

………

………

_I have wa__lke__d the __**edg**__e of the a__**bys**__s_

_S_ee_n __**Go**__ds and A__**ng**__els tu_rn**e**_**d**__ to dust_

_I re__ve__l in your misery_

_Bat__**hing **__in your lust_

_I am the _**Swor**_d of __**Vengeance**_

_Seraphim of __**Despair**_

_I burn _the m**ig**hty fo**res**ts **do**wn

And le**ave** the_ pla__ne__t bare _

_You know me __though you do not know _

_What face I take__ this time _

_You know my deeds __**through**_**history**

_The __**riddle to**__ my rhyme _

_I am the cloud that buries the sun_

_The __**darkn**__ess rolling in_

_I am the __plague__ called __**Wickedness **_

_The __sickness__ known as __**Sin **_

_We have a__**lw**__ays been as __**one**_

_Two _corpses_ in one tomb _

_Lying __**toget**__her in d__**arkn**__ess_

_Awaiting c__om__mon d__**o**__om _

_Now the cr__**yp**__t has been unla__tch__ed _

_The to__**mbs**__tone m__**ove**__d aside _

_My ti__**m**__e to act has c__**o**__me at last_

_My fate __**YOU WILL ABIDE!**_

…

_Hello _

_Sorry for interrupting _

_But it seems the only way I get heard anymore is to _

_Make _

_A_

_Scene _

_You're _

_Probably _

_Wondering _

_Who _

_Would_

_Have_

_The _

_Audacity _

_To_

_Interrupt _

_The _

_Story _

_So_

_Far? _

_Well…_

_I'm Not Telling _

_Not yet anyway _

_You see I have _

_BIG _

_PLANS _

_For the_

_Heroes _

_And I wouldn't want to _

_Spoil_

_The _

_Surprise. _

_I Have to _

_**GO **_

_Now _

_But _

_Don't _

_Worry _

_We'll _

_Be_

_In_

_Touch _

_Yours truly, _

_The Crypt Keeper_


	6. URGENT MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR

**PRIORITY 1 (URGENT) **

FROM THE DESK OF THE AUTHOR

THE LIBRARY OF THE MONITOR

ISLA DE OCHENTA

THE ARK

_Dear Reader, _

_By now you have undoubtedly noticed that there is something very __very __wrong with the last chapter. _

_I came to the same conclusion when I first set eyes on the page that suddenly began to shift and distort. Suddenly another voice entered the global rift and began to meddle with the history of the world. As soon as I finished the page, the normal text reappeared and the story continued to flow. But no matter how far I read on, the message still deeply disturbed me. _

_Crypt Keeper…Never have I heard the name. There have long been whispers on the wind of a nameless evil that spread fear and loathing wherever it went but it's just an old legend…_

_I apologize; I'm getting ahead of myself. It will take some time to check the remainder of the text for errors so please bear with me. If you could, will you hold on to a copy of the message? I may need to consult it from time to time as the situation develops. If he attempts to contact you again, do not respond. Contact me immediately. _

_As for now, the story will move on. If we're lucky, this may be an anomaly that will be forgotten. _

_If we're not, then things are going to get very bad, very quickly. _

_Stay Safe, _

_The Author _


	7. Act One Scene Three

_Act One, Scene Three: Past and Present Collide_

Laura came back in the kitchen, wringing her messy blonde hair dry of sticky sweet soda that had gushed all over everything in the kitchen. Luke was sitting at the table, throwing bits of omelet up for Kameo to snap up in her jaws.

"Finally cracked the mystery of the Coke can, then?" Laura said, grabbing a sheet of paper towels and trying to mop up the sugary mess.

Luke laughed as he sipped the frothy foam off the top of the can. "Yeah, it took a few tries," Luke said, gesturing to a pile of cans in the sink in various stages of destruction (one appeared to have a fork stuck in bottom.) "But I figured it out eventually." Luke proudly held up a can with the top sliced off.

Laura was about to say something, but decided against it. He was from another world after all.

Laura shook her head, sending a few Coke droplets flying. She didn't know why she accepted this fact without question; any sane person would have rung the police as soon as he started talking about holes in the air, talking bears that wore armor and real life witches. Most sane people would have written him off as a half mad environmentalist grizzly man/Harry Potter fanboy yet it all seemed somehow normal to Laura.

Well its not exactly like I'm an authority on normal, Laura thought to herself as she glanced up at the clock.

"Omygod!" Laura said so suddenly that Luke and Kameo jumped in surprise, spilling even more Coke on the table. "It's almost nine o'clock! My dad's going to be here any minute!"

"So?" Kameo asked. "What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal?" Laura echoed. "Let's review. 1: There's a strange boy in my house with a talking fox! 2:…well I guess that's it. But that's still one solid reason!"

"What's wrong with me?" Kameo asked indignantly

"Trust me on this: My dad wouldn't handle talking animals well."

"We should probably get back to the portal too: Mum and Pan will flip a wig if we're not back in bed." Luke got up to leave.

"So…now what?" Laura asked.

"Whatd'ya mean?" Luke asked, picking his coat up off her Xbox 360 (_AN: HA-HA! Suck it Sony! Halo 3 RUUUUUUULZ! Erm…sorry) _

"Well how are we going to meet again? Or is this it?"

"No! Well, I hope not…" Luke said uncertainly

"Well…you said the portal was in the Botanic Gardens, right?"

"Yeah…"

"So lets meet there tomorrow at about…nine-ish?"

"When's nine-ish?" Luke asked

"Nine. Let's say nine." Laura clarified.

"Kay…where?"

"Ummm….there's this bench …" Laura began

"Over the footbridge, across the pond and under the willow?" Kameo rattled off

"Yeah, why?"

Luke and Kameo shared a glance. "Because the exact same bench is in our world."

Laura and Luke shared a glance and for a moment it was like looking in a mirror; each one's expression reflected on the others.

"Laura! I'm home!"

Will Parry closed the door just in time to see his daughter come in from the back yard.

"Hi dad!" she said breathlessly

"Hi…what were you doing out there?"

"Oh, I just…thought I heard something. It was just a fox."

Will sighed, dropping his briefcase on the kitchen table and grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. "What happened to all of our Cokes?"

"Uhh…I got really thirsty." Laura quickly lied

Will rolled his eyes. "Teenagers…" he mumbled, before heading up the stairs.

"So how was your…" Laura began to ask, before her father's bedroom door slammed shut.

Laura stared up the stairs for a moment before flicking on her TV and powering up her 360. If Laura was had been an athletic child, she would have vented her frustration on a punching bag. Since neither of her parents were sporty types, she turned to video games where some poor unsuspecting American kid would receive the wrath intended for her father. Laura subconsciously scowled at the thought of her father becoming more and more churlish as time dragged on. Whenever she wanted to be with him, he was never there. But the moment that she wished he was stuck in a board meeting (like when the cops caught her for skipping school the day _Bioshock _came out) he seemed to appear like the Tooth Fairy of Endless Lectures and Reprimand.

Laura shrugged it off as she fixed Cheetahgurl343 in her crosshairs and proceeded to rack up one more kill for Red Team. Worrying about her father should be the least of her worries. If what the fox-kid said was true then tomorrow she could very well be in another world. Her physics professor had tried to explain string theory to her during class one day. The concept that multiple universes existed parallel to her own was discounted as far-fetched speculation in most scientific circles but here was (supposed) proof that other worlds existed.

Laura smirked when she realized that she was possibly the only person in the world who could metaphysically speculate while delivering a energy sword thrust to a Japanese kid's stomach…

Three hours (Sixteen kills, four flag captures, twelve enemy bases bombed and over ten rounds as the Juggernaut) later Laura's caffeine buzz died down and she wearily dragged herself upstairs, changed into a pair of cheerleading shorts and a tank top and pulled the covers over her head. She was just about to drift off to sleep when a gentle scratching came at her window. Laura grumbled and hoped it would go away but the scratching was followed by a faint "Hey!"

Swearing bitterly she kicked the sheets off and moved over to the window where a artic fox was scratching the glass.

Laura opened the window. "Kameo? What are you-" her question was answered by the sight of Luke on the ground below.

"What are you two doing here?" she whisper-yelled down to Luke.

"We couldn't find the portal!" Kameo spoke for Luke

"What's that supposed to mean?!?!" She whispered back

"I think it's pretty self-explanatory!" Kameo shot back

"Can I come in?" Luke called from below. "I can't feel my ears!"

"When can you ever feel your ears?" Laura asked

"Hmm…good point."

Laura sighed. "Hold on." she disappeared inside and when she returned she threw a fire escape rope ladder down for Luke to climb up.

Luke's head appeared in the window several seconds later, hair dripping freezing cold water on the floor. "What happened to you?"

"F-f-f-f-" Luke stammered

"He fell in the pond." Kameo supplied from her spot on Laura's desk

Laura went over to her closet, emerging with a tank top and athletic shorts. "Put these on. I'll get you something to sleep on." She said disappearing silently down the stairs.

By the time Laura returned with a sleeping bag and spare bedding Luke had changed into her shorts and shirt and his wet clothes were bundled up on the floor.

"I thought it would be easier if I slept on the sofa…" Luke said, handing her the clothes and accepting the bedding.

"Are you crazy? Neither of you are leaving this room until my dad leaves for work in the morning. If he finds out you're sleeping over he'll do to you what I just did to NarutoFanboi869 a few short hours ago!"

"Meaning…?" Kameo asked

"He'll stick a plasma grenade to your back then shoot you with a Fuel Rod…" Laura trailed off realizing what was coming out of her mouth would have been incomprehensible to anyone who wasn't a hardcore gaming geek like she was.

"Never mind. Let's just get some sleep." Laura said, crawling under her covers as Luke set his bedding up at the side of her bed. Switching off the light, she curled up and drifted off to a warm, peaceful night's sleep…

_I know you_

_I know your past_

_I know your future_

_I know your hopes_

_I know your fears_

_All you have ever been or ever will be lies before me_

_And it is you who they will turn against me_

_Can you do it?_

_Are you ready?_

_Or will you perish in the attempt?_

_Like hundreds of thousands before you_

_Can you succeed where others failed?_

_Can you drive a blade into the heart of darkness?_

_Can you kill what is not alive?_

_Father slew a God_

_Can Daughter slay a Curse?_

_Not alone _

_Not even with…_

_Him _

Laura was torn from her dream by the piercing sunlight. Laura looked down at the tangled sheets beneath her to find them soaked with sweat. Wiping her brow with a shaking hand, she tried to remember what the voice said. So mocking, so cruel. If hatred had a voice it surely spoke last night. Rolling over she saw Luke sitting up in his blankets, Kameo whining softly, rubbing her head against Luke's hand. The instant they turned and looked at each other they knew that the voice had visited both of them in one night.


	8. Act One Scene Four:

_Act One, Scene Four: The Portal and The Puma _

Breakfast was a silent affair. Laura had to wait for what seemed like an eternity for her father to leave for work before it was safe for Luke to leave her room. Laura toasted some bread and put a can of baked beans on the stove while Luke and Kameo watched Luke's wet clothes spin in the dryer with childlike fascination.

As the beans bubbled and frothed, Laura kept dwelling on the voice from her dream. It had seemed so familiar, yet frighteningly alien at the same time. Laura shivered despite the mid-summer's air when she thought of the cold, almost lyrical way that the beast talked.

Which brought up another point. Try as she might, Laura couldn't remember the face of her derider. She could remember standing in a dank, humid area with a thick mist hanging like vaporized stew in the air. The voice seemed to come from all sides so it became impossible to discern the face behind the voice.

Luke had said little about the dream, only that the voice seemed familiar to him as well. Laura stared silently across the table at the boy who was feeding bits of toast to Kameo while she rubbed her head against his leg. How could it be possible that a boy she had never met before had dreamt what seemed to be an identical dream to her own?

"So," Luke said, finally breaking the silence. "Ready to go?"

Laura nodded, wiping the beans from her mouth. She wordlessly dropped her dishes into the sink and furiously scribbled a note fro her father in case they should be gone a while.

Luke pulled his freshly dried shirt from Laura's drying machine. He hadn't had much time to explore the house when he arrived so now that Laura was upstairs changing, he took the time to examine all the strange and fascinating devices that collected in Laura's house. He meandered his way through the kitchen, opening and closing the fridge a few times to relish the icy blast of air, noting the electric coffee pot that brewed the steaming liquid all by itself and flicking a switch only to discover that it produced a horrible grinding, whirring sound from the sink.

Luke shut off the machine and made his way into the living room where Laura had left her Xbox plugged in from the night before. Kameo tentatively stuck out her nose to investigate the flashing green button on the front of the smooth, white box only to cause the previously blank box above it to come to life. Luke fell back as a strange image flitted across the front of the box. It showed a knight in green armor with a golden visor carrying a strange looking rifle and firing rapidly into hoards of bulbous, mutated monsters while a strange lizard like creature slashed away with a glowing blade. The images themselves weren't as surprising as the fact that they were _moving. _

"Admiring my Campaign clips, are we?"

Luke turned around to see Laura emerging from upstairs wearing a dark green tank top and a peasant skirt, fastening her hair into a manageable ponytail.

"Err…clips?"

"I'll explain it later. We should check out that park to see if the portal is even there anymore."

Luke gulped and nodded. The idea of being trapped in a strange land with no way home was a discomforting thought.

* * *

It took them nearly an hour to reach the gardens on foot, ducking behind various trees and such to avoid being seen by anyone who would have thought a boy talking to a fox as odd. By the time they reached the outer gate and paid admission, it was nearly noon.

They wandered through the lush garden, keeping their eyes open for anything that might resemble an inter-dimensional rip in the space time continuum or a gaping hole in the air but after an hour or so they had had no luck.

"Find anything yet?" Laura asked what was quickly becoming her three least favorite words in the English language.

"Not yet." Luke mumbled for the umpteenth time that day.

"Let's sit somewhere instead of wandering around like half retarded zombies, staring into space." Laura said, indicating a bench just a short walk across a pond and under a low hanging tree.

"Is that the bench you wee talking about?" Luke asked.

"Yeah. You saw the same one in your world?"

Luke nodded and as the trio began its march towards the little bench under the tree, Luke once again felt an onset of mild anticipation coupled with just a hint of trepidation. For some asinine reason the rickety wooden bench conjured a powerful set of emotions within him, ranging from bliss to sorrow and ecstasy to agony. And as he sat by Laura with Kameo sitting on his lap he suddenly felt at peace though a shred of bittersweet sadness lingered in his heart.

"Luke!"

Luke snapped back to attention to see Laura looking concernedly at him.

"You okay?" she asked. "You kinda zoned out there for a second."

"Wha? Oh no I'm fine." Luke said quickly, looking away from her as he did. And as he turned his head to one side he caught the faintest shimmer in the air.

"There!" Luke said, jumping up, pointing to the shimmer in the air.

"Where?" Laura asked, squinting her eyes. "I don't see-" But Laura's statement was cut off as Luke grabbed her hand and dragged her off along an arbor covered path for some time before he finally stopped.

"There!" he said confidently, pointing at a patch of empty air.

Laura was beginning to get annoyed. "I still don't see anything."

For the second time that day Luke violated Laura's personal code of Personal Space (Article V: Subsection III: Sub-Subsection IV: The Strange Boys and Magical Talking Animal section) when he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her over to where he was standing. Laura was about to deliver a swift kick to the top of Luke's head when she saw it.

It was as if someone had taken a knife (_Coughcough) _and cut a hole in the air, revealing a bustling Victorian street full of people and animals walking side by side. Laura hadn't fully believed Luke until she saw it with her own two eyes: a window to another world.

She was about to step forward when she felt Luke grab her arm, breaking the trance.

"What?" Laura snapped, annoyed

"Umm…well…" Luke began to say.

"Me and Luke have been talking and the fact that you have no visible daemon would make you appear in our world as a…oh, how should I put this…An unholy abomination of God and Nature."

"Charming." Laura said dryly. "You should write Hallmark cards."

Shaking Luke's arm off she boldly strode forward across the world boundary. Before she had even taken her first full step in Luke's world, she felt peculiarly sick. She stopped for a moment, swooning, trying to regain her balance. As she staggered forward, she fell, darkness surrounding her. Her last fleeting image was that of Luke and Kameo running across the border to catch her but being blocked by something orange, black and white…

* * *

Mr. Malloy taught English History at the C.S Lewis memorial High School in Oxford England and Remedial English to kids in summer school. Glancing up at the clock on the wall, he estimated that he had twenty minutes before his students arrived for class. Pulling out a copy of the latest serial thriller he only managed to read a few lines before a sharp rap on the door broke his easily breakable concentration.

"Come in." he said, thinking it was a student arriving early. Instead a tall young man in with long white hair entered the room.

"Can I help you?" Mr. Malloy asked.

"Yes Mr…" the man looked at a notepad he produced from his jacket. "Malloy, is it?"

"Yes?"

"I'm Inspector Brian Young of the Department of Education. I'm here about one of your students, Laura Parry."

"I'm afraid she's not in summer school." Malloy said, eyeing the stranger apprehensively

"Ah…I see. In that case I will need her home address and phone number."

Mr. Malloy crossed his arms. "In _that _case I will need some form of government…"

Mr. Malloy stopped as he was vaguely aware that there was something sticking out of his portly stomach. Looking down he saw the blade of a forked sword embedded in his stomach. Looking up he saw that the young man was looking at him with a serene expression.

"Is that blood?" Mr. Malloy said, beginning to feel faint

"Yes." The young man said so softly and so gently that Mr. Malloy almost didn't catch it. "In a few moments you'll asphyxiate and pass out…but you should be feeling no pain right now."

Mr. Malloy slumped down in his chair as the young man approached his side.

"Close your eyes, Mr. Malloy." The young man smiled sadly. "Don't…let this face be the last thing you see."

"Why?" Mr. Malloy asked dreamily

"Because…heaven may hold it against you."

Mr. Malloy was fading fast. "Am I…going to die?"

The young man smiled again. "We all are dieing, Mr. Malloy. Some more quickly that others. But don't worry about that now; go to sleep."

Thomas Malloy took the nice young man's advice and closed his eyes. In another second, he was gone.

Serafax drew his blade from the man's stomach and resheathed it with a metallic _shing. _Pulling Laura Parry's file, he drew a small com device from his coat.

"Braxas. Rev up the Choppers and head over to 1911 Peach Street. The girl's name is Laura Parry..."

* * *

"Laura…Laura…Laura…"

Laura Parry woke up to the feeling of wet sandpaper rubbing up against her face. Groaning slightly, she tried to sit up but felt another onset of swooning take her. Laying back, she grumbled. "What happened?"

"We solved your daemon problem."

Laura sat up straight when she heard an unfamiliar voice address her. As her eyes adjusted, she could vaguely make out Luke and Kameo kneeling on her right and a blurry orange, black and white shape at her left.

"Uhh…Luke I must still be out of it because I swear I saw cat on my left."

"I'm _not _a bloody cat!" the voice that wasn't Luke's or Kameo's said indignantly.

Tentatively opening her eyes, Laura saw a lean, handsome cat, the size of a dog with orange and black spotted fur and a white stomach smiling at her.

"Morning." The cat said.

As Laura fainted from shock two thoughts simultaneously crossed her mind. One was that the cat was _not _a cat but a young leopard. And two was that she would no longer look like an Unholy Abomination of both God and Nature in _this _world.


	9. Act One, Scene Five

_Act One, Scene Five: Young Love and Lies _

"Simba?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Spots?"

"Wrong again."

"Sanghelios the Almighty?"

Laura's currently nameless daemon cocked an eyebrow.

"What on God's green earth makes you think I'll answer to Sanghelios the Almighty?"

"Its got Almighty in the name…" Laura said sheepishly as she once again failed to produce a name that seemed to fit the daemon's finicky personality.

"Help me out here!" Laura said, turning to Luke who was skipping rocks across the pond with Kameo batting at her tail lazily

"I didn't name Kameo if that's what you're asking." Luke said, watching another pebble skip once, twice, three times before sinking below the surface.

Laura rolled her eyes. "Manyus?

"No."

"Aryus?"

"Nein."

"Keaton?"

"Did you say Keaton?"

"Yes?" Laura asked excitedly

"Oh…no."

"Kratos, Helios, Hypnos, Thanthos?" Laura fired off rapidly

"Nyecht, Nyecht and Nyecht." The daemon batted back without missing a beat

"Pantheos?"

The daemon's ears perked up. "Pantheos?" he seemed to toy with the idea for what seemed like an eternity before finally saying. "Alright then."

Laura sighed with relief as Pantheos purred his new name under his breath. "Okay we're ready!"

"Finally!" Kameo said, stretching her legs. "I was beginning to wonder whether or not we'd spend the night here."

"Hush, Kam." Luke said. "Pantheos?"

"I dunno; it just popped into my head." Laura said.

Luke looked as if he was going to say something but simply shrugged and started off down the garden path towards the main part of town.

* * *

Luke's Oxford was like taking a trip back in time to the early part of the twentieth century. The style of dress, modes of transportation and general feel of the place spoke of a world that had yet to experience The Great Depression or either World War.

And yet Laura wondered if they would ever experience such things. As she and Luke walked down the street she could overhear snippets of conversation.

"_Confederate States of America outlaws slavery_." One man read aloud while shaking his head. "It's about bloody time."

"_Muscovite Revolution Overthrows Czar Edmond III. Temporary democracy established_." Another read.

"_Nipponese Swordmaster Hattori Minamoto Dies in Duel_."

"_Mexico Builds Fence on California border to keep Americans out." _

"_France Invades Belgium. World Leaders Speechless_."

Indeed many of the events that shaped Laura's world seemed to have never happened. The Hindenburg crash that ended zeppelin travel in Laura's world seemed to have never occurred. Diseases like polio and smallpox were still considered fatal as well as diseases Laura had never heard before ("Did you hear about Billy Caldwell?" Laura overheard one woman say to another. "Yes, poor dear has the Sloth Flu.")

"We need to stop by my flat for a bit." Luke said, leading Laura through a thick knot of chattering gyptians. "I need to pick up a few things before we see the rest of town."

Luke led Laura up several bystreets down a few back alleys and over a hedgerow to a nice little neighborhood of perfectly manicured little houses. Laura counted the houses all the way to number eight, a light blue, well taken care of little home with a vine covered arbor and a rickety wooden bench swing. Luke slipped his spare key into the lock and with a _click _they stepped inside the foyer.

The home indeed looked like an absentminded professor and a teenage boy lived there. Piles of some strange subject and diagrams of clock like things with pictures instead of numbers lay in disassociated heaps and judging by the piles of mail on the doorstep and the amount of dishes in the sink, it appeared as if the owners of the house were rarely in.

"I just want to grab something from my room," Luke explained, disappearing up the stairs. "I'll be down in a minute."

Laura looked at Pantheos who was busing himself with sniffing around the living room, his thick powerful tail swishing behind him as he went. Thinking of nothing better to do, Laura moved a pile of papers from the couch and sat down. Conspicuously missing from the living room was a television (something a media obsessed Laura found hard to comprehend). Instead the walls were lined with bookcases that were stuffed to the brim with worn and well loved volumes of every conceivable shape and size. Topics ranged from botany to Zathurial Dust Theory but the most abundant text was on the subject of "_Alethiometry" _

Laura approached the shelf and drew a thick red dusty book and began to thumb through it.

"_Context is vital when dealing with reading the alethiometer" _The book read "_While an elephant may mean longevity and loyalty, its context may mean something different in the context of Battle Strategy, where it may mean perseverance or…" _

"Luke! Luke are you home?"

Laura turned around when the front door opened with a swish and closed with a slam. A reddish gold creature preceded the voice into the room, pausing its frantic search to stop and stare at Laura.

"Luke you answer me right this very…oh!" Laura looked up from the creature to see a remarkably beautiful woman standing behind it. Although she wore a plain scholar's uniform of a long skirt, white blouse and black vest and although her golden blonde hair was tucked behind her ears in a very schoolmarm-like fashion and _although _her clear blue eyes were skewed by bifocals, Laura could see that she was very beautiful.

"Um…hello." The woman who she assumed was Luke's mother greeted somewhat apprehensively. "Who, might I ask, are you?"

"Oh, hi…I'm Laura. Laura Par...Paris. Laura Paris. I'm…Luke's girlfriend." Laura didn't know why she lied to the woman about her last name only that it was vital that she do so.

"Girlfriend? Luke's never mentioned you before." Lyra said suspiciously

"Well…we kinda wanted to keep it on the down low until we decided it was serious enough to announce." Laura found herself shocked at the ease at which she lied.

Luke's mother was now gazing at Laura intently. She took off her glasses and stowed them in her pocket, fixing Laura with unclouded blue eyes. Laura shifted under her scrutiny; Pantheos sat stiffly as the ferret daemon inspected him.

"Have we…met before?" the woman asked.

"No, I don't believe we have. I'm new in town, see. My dad just moved here from…Scotland. He's a…lawyer and he just got a job at one of the local firms around here." Laura lied confidently, raising her chin slightly as her father did when he wanted to look like he was confident. "I'm sorry; I didn't catch your name."

"What?" the woman said appearing to come out of a trance. "Oh, yes. How rude of me; I'm Lyra and this is Pantalaimon." She introduced herself and her daemon in turn.

"Pantheos." Pantheos introduced

Lyra looked as if she was going to comment on this when Luke bounded down the stairs, spotted his mother talking to Laura and attempted to quietly sneak back upstairs when Laura got what could have possibly been the single most diabolical idea she had ever concocted.

"Luke, darling! Your mum's home!"

"LUCAS!" Lyra promptly wheeled around to see her son tentatively inch his way around the corner of the door

"Hi mum." Luke said sheepishly. "Er…how was your day?"

"How was my day?!?" Lyra asked incredulously. "Oh it was just peachy! I spent over FIVE BLOODY HOURS deciphering a message that may or may not start a global war, breaking for lunch to get stopped by the Master of Jordan who insisted that I forecast the weather for the next SIX BLOODY MONTHS and when I finally come home I find a note from my son saying he's GONE!!!!!" Lyra's eyes flashed crimson

"Look mum, I'm sorry but I was just…just…"

"He was showing me around the Botanic Gardens." The story was developing beautifully. "We were having so much wholesome fun admiring flowers and stuff that we got locked in for the night." Laura gave a shiver for effect. "It was freezing but Luke managed to get us into one of the greenhouses where we could sleep without worrying about frostbite and hypothermia and whatnot." Laura batted her eyelashes in an overtly sugary fashion and sighed in a manner that almost made her gag. "He even leant me his coat for the night…"

Lyra turned to Luke. "Is this true, son?"

"Er…yes!" Luke said quickly catching on to Laura's game. "Every word."

"Well," Lyra said, calming down. "That was very gallant of you but next time you and your little friend go playing in the garden make sure to take your watch!"

"Will do!" Luke said, clearly relieved.

"I'll make sure he does." Laura said, giving Luke a nudge in the ribs and slipping her hand into his. Luke gave her a confused look but the strained smile on Laura's face told him to roll with it or she was going to unleash an unholy beating on him and anything around him. Pantheos was eying Kameo with the same expression. "Well it's been lovely meeting you but I really must be getting home; my dad must be worried sick by now! Coming, Luke?"

"Yeah. See you round four, mum!"

"Take your time." Lyra said with a mischievous smile. "Young romance has no agenda, after all."

Laura gave a nervous laugh but she played it up to seem like she was laughing at Lyra's little joke. Lyra and Pan smiled at the "couple" as they headed out into the cool midmorning light.

* * *

As soon as the door closed, Lyra let her smile drop into a frown. "They're lying."

"How can you tell?" Pan asked

"There are three things I'm an authority on, Pantalaimon: The aleithometer, young love and lying. Since _I _myself have pulled many a harebrained story out of thin air I know the look that one gets when formulating a tall tale." Lyra smiled bitterly. "And I should think that I of all people should know what one looks like when love-struck…"

"Then why didn't you say something?"

"There's something almost…familiar about them. Like we've met before."

"I know what you mean but how could that be? We've never seen her before in our lives."

Lyra shook her head and reached into her black velvet bag for the golden compass that had taken her most of her adult life to learn how to decipher. "I don't know, Pan…but we're about to find out."


	10. crypticmessage1exe

_FROM THE DESK OF THE AUTHOR  
LIBRARY OF THE MONITOR  
ISLA DE OCHENTA  
THE ARK _

_Dear Reader, _

_I came across these pages jammed in between chapters. I'm still working out what they mean. If you think of anything, let me know _

_Sincerely _

_The Author _

_FILE ATTATCHED _

_Opening…_

_Running program thecrypticmessages__**1**__.exe _

_Root _

_Of Deadly Sins feel our mortal wrath_

_Feel involved to seek out a path _

_Second _

_Asking questions, search for clues_

_The answer's been right in front of you_

_Third _

_Tried to break through, Long to connect_

_Fall on deaf ears and fail bated breath _

_Fourth _

_Loyalty, trust, faith and desire _

_Carries love through the darkest fire _

_Fifth _

_Talks of insanity; of smothering hell _

_Tried to escape but to no avail _

_Sixth_

_The mouths of the mass who claim they adore _

_Drain all the lifeblood while begging for more _

_Seventh _

_INNOCENT VICTIMS OF MERCILESS CRIMES  
FALL VICTIM TO MADMEN'S PLOTS AND DESIGNS _

_OCTAVE   
STEP AFTER STEP WE'RE CONTROLLING OUR FATE_

_WHEN WE COME TO THE END, WE FIND OUT ITS TOO LATE!!!_

_**1**_

_2_

_3_

_4_

_5_

_6_

_7_

_**8**_

_**1**_

_2_

_3_

_4_

_5_

_6_

_7_

_**8**_

_**1**_

_2_

_3_

_4_

_5_

_6_

_7_

_**8**_

_**1**_

_2_

_3_

_4_

_5_

_6_

_7_

_**8**_

_**1**_

_2_

_3_

_4_

_5_

_6_

_7_

_**8**_

_**1**_

_2_

_3_

_4_

_5_

_6_

_7_

_**8**_

_**Riddle me this, dear reader**_

_**When does 1 equal 8? **_


	11. Act One Scene Six

_Act One, Scene Six: Hunted _

"I really don't know about this."

"So you've said…"

"If we're wrong…"

"If we're wrong then we already lost."

"You have such confidence in the children…"

"We must: Everything depends on it."

"But to trust so blindly…"

"I have no other option. You've seen the reports! You think those were all _accidents?!_"

"Yes, but…"

"Can't you feel it? It's happening more and more often now, almost every day! If they can't stop it, no one can."

"I suppose I'll take your word for it."

"Yes. Yes you will."

* * *

As soon as they were far enough away from Luke's house so that Lyra couldn't possibly see them, Laura dropped her act.

"I swear if I ever have to do that again I'll swallow bucket of salt and be done with it…" Laura said bitterly.

"Very good act though." Luke said, thumbing through a book he had grabbed from, his room while Laura was keeping his mother busy. "A little heads up next time would be helpful"

Laura rolled her eyes and with one swift movement, plucked the book from Luke's hands.

"Hey!" he cried indignantly.

"If I had to lie to your mother so you could get this, I think I should get to see what it is!" Laura flipped the book over. "_A Guide to Dark objects" _she read the cover aloud. "What's this for?"

Luke snatched the worn volume back. "It's an old book the Church published a while back against "dark materials". Most of it's a load of rubbish: according to this, carousels are the wheels of Hell that tempt children into the inferno with the glamour of evil. But that's not why I got it." Luke cracked the book open to the index. "_Abernet Eye, Aclolsenoro Theory, Addition, _here we are!" Luke flipped to the indicated page.

Laura looked over. "_Ǽsahǽttr. _What's that?"

"You have to keep reading." Kameo said exasperatedly

Laura was about to say something that was both very rude and not entirely English when she felt a sharp nip at her hand. She looked down to see Pantheos glaring up at her disapprovingly.

Laura turned back to the book. "_Ǽsahǽttr, also known as the God Killer or the Subtle Knife. Forged in the early era of the world simply classified as Harvest by a group of philosophers at the Torre deli Angeli in the city of Ci'gattze. Said to have the ability to cut through any material devised by man or God including the fabric between worlds._" Laura looked up. "So what's this got to do with us?"

Luke turned the page, showing a picture of the knife and at once Laura knew what he meant. The handle of the knife had the image of an angel carved in the wood, the same image her father's knife had.

"So…you think that my dad…"

"Has the subtle knife." Luke finished. "The moment you showed it to me, I knew I had seen it before. Laura, is your father missing any fingers by any chance?"

"Well, yeah. But he said he lost those in a woodworking accident when he was twelve." Laura felt her head getting light as she struggled with this new revelation.

"That seems less and less likely with each passing minute." Luke said, closing the book with a snap and setting of towards the park at a brisk pace. "We need to get to that window. I need to see that knife again."

"What, now?" Laura said, jogging to keep up with his long strides.

"Yes, now! I've got a really bad feeling about all this; that knife is cursed! It's brought nothing but misfortune to anyone who wields it."

"Oh that's nonsense!" Laura said, feeling a little frustrated. "Cursed knife? Are you listening to yourself?"

"Even if it's not cursed there are loads of people who would kill to have it! We have to be sure."

Laura was going to say something back but decided to humor him as they sprinted back to the window in the park.

* * *

"C'mon, Lyra, focus!"

"Hush, Pan!" Lyra said exasperatedly as she consulted the golden compass for the fifteenth time. "_Who…is…that…girl?" _Lyra asked the instrument.

The answer came back swiftly "_Luke's friend." _

Lyra rolled her eyes. "_What's…her…name?" _

Again the answer came smoothly. "_Laura" _

Lyra was about ready to hurl the priceless object out the window . "I know that!"

"Ask it where she's from." Pan offered helpfully.

Lyra did so and the answer was simply, "_Oxford." _

"I dunno what's wrong." Lyra said, thoroughly frazzled. "It's never usually this vague."

"Try asking who her father is."

The aleithometer responded "_A man" _

"What?" Lyra screamed at the device, who coolly responded, "_I will accept no further questions on this subject." \_

Lyra tossed the device down, wiping her sweat covered brow. "Well it could have just said that to begin with."

* * *

Laura stuck her head in her front door. "Dad…you home?" as soon as she was sure that the coast was clear, she beckoned for Luke to enter with Kameo and Pantheos.

"Alright, there's a box in the bookcase that has the knife in it. Now all we need to do is…"

Laura stopped as she got to the entrance of her father's study because there, napping on top of his desk was a large multi colored cat.

Laura rolled her eyes. "More bloody cats…" she muttered darkly. "Oi, kitty!" she called to the cat who jumped up and looked at Laura like a deer in the head lights. "Clear off! I've had enough of your type round here!"

The cat looked around for a second as if she was trying to verify that Laura was actually talking to her. Finally she looked at Laura and said. "Are you talking to me?"

"Yes, I'm…" Laura stopped when she realized that the cat had actually spoken to her.

" So you can see me?" Laura didn't respond. "Oh dear, this is awkward." The cat muttered. "I hadn't thought of what to say if I were to meet you one day."

"Do I know you?" Laura asked.

"No, but I know you, Laura. I've known you since the day you were born."

"But how…"

"She's a daemon!" Pantheos cried triumphantly

"But…" Kameo looked around futilely. "Where's your human?"

"At work."

"So that means…" Laura said, slowly piecing the picture together.

The cat simply nodded. "My name is Kirjava. I am your father's daemon."

Laura slid down the wall and onto the floor. A week that had started so normally with a late history report was ending with trips to other worlds and conversations with talking cats. If she didn't know any better, she would have said that she needed to lay off the peyote. Laura tied to play it cool as if talking animal incarnations of her relative's souls was something she saw every day but all she could think of saying was, "Bet my dad would have an aneurysm if he found out about you…"

"Not really, no. I thought he took it quite well."

"He _knows _about you?" Laura asked incredulously. "So that means…"

"He traveled to another world," Luke said. "My world."

Kirjava looked past Laura where she noticed Luke. She didn't say anything, but jumped off the desk and padded slowly towards a wary looking Luke. She stopped about a meter away from him and just stared. She cocked her head sideways and squinted her eyes as if trying to make out a shape on the horizon.

"Have we…" Kirjava started to ask but a sharp knock at the door interrupted her.

"Don't answer that!" Kirjava ordered sharply as Laura got up to answer the door. Kirjava crept quietly around the corner, ears pressed flat against her head until she could see the front door. She stared at in for a moment and then quickly turned to the two teenagers and their daemons. "Run!"

Laura was about to question her when there was suddenly a large bang and the front door sailed past their hiding place in the study and out the back door where it landed in the grass.

"What the hell was that?!?!" Kameo screamed as Luke pressed them against the other side of the doorway, out of sight.

"Scream louder, will ya? I don't think they heard you Scotland!" Pantheos shot back from Laura's side.

"Quiet!" Everyone fell silent as they heard someone enter the house with shuffling, clanking footfalls.

"Was that really necessary, man?" a thick Jamaican accent joined the figure inside the house.

"Door was locked. Had to open." The first figure said in short, gruff sentences.

"You could have had me open it." A third voice, distinctly female, joined the first two.

"That's enough." A softer voice rounded out the pack. "Good work, Inferiax."

The gruff voice grunted as the four intruders began to make their way through the house. Laura held her breath as the footsteps closed in on their hiding place.

"Listen to me," Kirjava whispered as the footsteps drew nearer with every shuffling, clanging step. "When I give the signal, run for the window and don't stop running until your safe."

"But…"

"Go!" With one bounding move, Kirjava darted out the study door and into the path of the intruder.

"What the…" the anonymous henchman cried out in alarm. Seconds later a deafening explosion blew the doors off the hinges and out the study window.

"I take it that was the signal." Pantheos cried, following the doors onto the lawn outside with Luke and Kameo tailing. Laura jammed the book-safe under her arm and dove headlong out the window to join the retreat that was already in progress.

* * *

"...clearly showing that my client was unaware of the effect a ball of twine would have on the common kitchen garbage dispAAAGH!"

The entire courtroom started as the star defense attorney grabbed his hand in apparent anguish.

"Mr. Parry is everything alright?" the judge said, leaning over his bench.

Will looked up quickly. "Yes, yes, everything's fine. No trouble at all" though his hand still throbbed with an invisible pain. "As I was saying, the prosecution clearly has no legal ARRGH!" Will bit his tongue to keep from crying out again.

"Sothedefensepetitionsfortheimmediatereleaseofsaiddefendantonthegroundsofgrosslegaloversightsandthebotchedpoliceworkoftheentiredivision!" Will summed up breathlessly as his client looked up in confusion. "ThankyouforyourtimebutImustbegoing." With that, star defense attorney William Parry dashed out of the courtroom, clutching his arm and praying to a God he killed himself that Kirjava hadn't gotten into too much trouble..

* * *

Four and a half blocks away from Laura's house, the two humans and their daemons threw themselves behind a bush to catch their breath.

"Who…the hell…are…those…guys?" Luke asked between gasps.

"I dunno…" Laura said brushing her hair out of her face. "But we need to find somewhere to hide before…"

_CLANG-Schump-CLANG-Schump-CLANG-Schump_

"How the hell did he find us?" Luke whispered as the clanging shuffling feet were drawing closer and closer.

Laura was about to respond when the bush was thrown back. A tall, dark skinned, bald headed man stared down at them with two red eyes. His left hand was that of a normal man but instead of a right arm there was a crudely fashioned metal arm. Looking down, Laura could see that the clanging, shuffling steps came from his mismatched logs, one fleshy and one cold steel.

"Target acquired." He said in a cold, emotionless voice. "Proceeding with apprehension."

"Apprehend this!" Laura wasn't quite sure what caused her to utter such a lame cliché; perhaps the stress of the day was finally catching up with her. Neither did she know what caused her to aim a kick at his human leg. But when her foot struck bone, the uneven distribution of weight caused him to drop to one knee, giving Luke an opportune moment to kick him in the face. Though he was possibly taller than an armored bear the sheer surprise of a victim attacking him back was enough for him to be knocked off kilter. He crashed to the earth, looking up in time to see Luke and Laura tearing down the street.

"Where are we going?" Luke yelled as they sprinted around the corner.

"Anywhere! As long as we get away from-" The storefront beside them exploded as the half-human man burst through the wall. Luke and Laura screeched to a halt as the behemoth fixed them in his gaze. Laura glanced frantically around. There had to be a way out of…

Then Laura saw it: and alleyway. Too small for the monster man to fit through but if they squeezed in…

Laura grabbed Luke's arm and pulled him towards the alleyway. Turning sideways, they managed to sidestep down the length of the alley and up against…

"A dead end." Kameo spat bitterly, placing her paws up against it. "Any more bright ideas?"

"At least there's no way th-" Laura didn't even get to finish her comeback because her pursuer appeared at the mouth of the alley. He sized up the entrance, decided that there was no way to worm through and decided to solve this problem like so many others he faced on a day to day basis.

He raised his metal arm in a fist. Closing his eyes, purple energy crackled, hissed and sparked off the cold steel. In a mighty punching movement, he sent a shockwave flying down the alley.

Laura cried aloud as she was swept off her feet and sent flying through the air towards the hard, brick…

* * *

Snow?

The air went from a crisp 64 degrees to below freezing as Laura crashed into a snow bank. Wiping the slushy snow from her eyes she saw, not ten feet away, a window to her own world open in the air, slowly closing as a very angry robot-man tried to reach it before it closed. With a mighty lunge, he dived for the window only to smash through the brick wall that usually occupied the place.

Laura looked around to see Luke brushing snow off his coat, Kameo shaking herself clean and Pantheos looking around in confusion.

"Where are we?" Laura said looking across the barren ice field that stretched on endlessly.

"Well, I'd say we're in my world." Luke said in an unusually high voice.

"What makes you say that?" Laura said, still scanning the horizon for signs of civilization.

"D'you remember the _panserbjorne _I was telling you about? The armored bears?"

"Yeah, why?" Laura turned around to find herself nose to nose with a massive, snow white bear clad in silver armor.

"That's why." Luke said, inches away from another bear.

The bear sniffed her tentatively. He reared up on his hind legs, looking down on her with a cold intelligence. Finally he turned to his partner. "What should we do with this lot?"

"Take them to the king." His partner said, nudging Luke forward. "Then we gut them like the vermin they are."

As Laura felt the cold steel of the bear's helmet nudge her back, she actually wished she was back home with the robot man instead of getting mauled by vicious armored snow bears.

* * *

_AN: Okay just saw The Golden Compass movie. IT was pretty good except for one teensy tiny little detail…what was it…oh yeah…ROGER WAS STILL ALIVE AT THE END!!!!! The movie ended with Lee, Lyra, Iorek, and Roger flying towards Lord Asriel's lab! I'd like to see how they paint themselves out of that one for the next one (Hopefully!) _


	12. Act One Scene Seven

_Act One Scene Seven: Koing von Panserbjorne _

_(King of the Armored Bears) _

"Move!"

For the fourteenth time that day Laura felt a sharp nudge in her back as the bear egged them on through the fresh falling snow. They were walking single file, a bear at stern and bow with the two humans in the middle.

Laura leaned in to talk to Luke better. "Where are they taking us?"

Luke gulped nervously. "Eisschloß" he whispered nervously "The king's castle."

"Any ideas on how to weasel our way out of this one?"

"Don't see how: it's damn near impossible to trick a bear."

Laura felt a powerful bass thud through her chest when she realized the bear was laughing to himself.

"True enough." He rumbled. "No one's every managed to trick a _panserbjorne _and live to tell their friends."

"Not so." The bear at the front said, turning back to converse with his partner. "One human has managed to deceive a bear and live."

"If you're referring to the incident involving the "daemon" Iofur invited deception by ceasing to _act _like a bear."

"So a bear _can _be deceived?" Laura asked, trying to mask the eagerness in her voice.

The bear laughed again. "Do not get your hopes up, child. King Byrnison is less subject to such trifles of the human race."

"What does that mean?" she whispered to Luke

"It means we're totally screwed…" Pantheos responded

A few hours later (judging by sun's position) they arrived at a sprawling cliff fortress carved from the rock and permafrost on the northern landscape. Sentries called out an alarm and the massive iron gates swung forth, beckoning the bears and their charges in and then slamming shut behind them with a definite clang.

"Well, it was nice knowing you." Luke said grimly

"Maybe the King will take a likening to us."

Kameo uttered a harsh laugh. "Not likely. Pan used to say that bears were some of the fiercest creatures in the world. They'll flay us alive."

The doors to the great ice palace swung open and a bear in shining gold and silver armor stepped out of the gloom. He was younger than the other two; Laura could tell by his size and the way his new armor glared in the midday sun.

He looked Luke and Laura over several times before turning to the bear who captured Laura. "Why do you bring these humans here?"

"All trespassers must face the king's judgment." The older bear said somewhat coldly.

"King Iorek has more important things to attend to than to mince words with a couple of-"

Without warning, a ferocious roar erupted out of the hall, shaking the stone and ice and blowing a lock of Laura's hair back with the force. The younger bear seemed to stiffen. Growling angrily, he turned around and beckoned the guards forward.

"Move!"

"I know, I know! Enough already!" Laura grumbled, rubbing the small of her back where the bear guard had now jabbed her fifteen times.

The Hall of the bear king was dark except for a large window at the very end of the chamber, backlighting a throne, on which sat the largest creature Laura had ever seen. The figure that cast the shadow was no less than fifteen feet tall, _sitting _and wider a small car. As they drew closer, they could see his armor was a deep, rust red. A thick crack split the silence as the king picked up a full grown seal and snapped its back, exposing the tender flesh within, which he proceeded to gnaw on as they approached.

"My King," the younger bear approached the throne. "These humans were caught trespassing past the north ridge. They await your judgment."

King Iorek Byrnison laid his seal down and stared at the two humans and their daemons for the longest time.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of silence, Laura could take it no longer. "Well go on with it then!" she cried out.

"Laura! What are you doing?!?!" Luke cried out in a panicky voice

"If you're going to kill us then stop wasting our time and DO IT ALREADY!!"

Iorek dropped to the floor and approached with heavy, shaking footfalls. Pantheos tentatively stood in his path baring teeth as the mammoth approached. Laura stiffened. For a moment she forgot that she was dealing with a mammoth armor plated carnivore and let her frustration flash. In one fluid motion he swatted Pantheos aside with his right paw and pinned Laura against an ice column with the other. Luke made a motion as if to help her but the younger bear blocked his path with a low growl.

Iorek was now so close to Laura's face that she could practically taste the foul seal meat still clinging to his teeth. His passionless black eyes regarded Laura with implacable ferocity as if trying to decipher some text in a forgotten tongue: grasping at what was recognizable while losing the general meaning every time he tried.

Laura simply gazed defiantly into the heartless black portals.

Suddenly Iorek's eyes grew wide. He released the paw holding Laura to the pillar causing her to fall to the ground, massaging her throat painfully. Without warning, Iorek brushed past the younger bear and rounded on a petrified Luke. Slowly, the bear king walked a circle around Luke, all the while sniffing every inch of his body with the same scrutiny that he used on Laura.

Finally he spoke and in a low rumbling bass he uttered a single word.

"Belacqua?"

* * *

Will Parry stepped over the shards of wood that had once been his front door and into the mass of warped, shattered chaos that had once been his front room.

"Laura?!" he called out, tentatively. "Kirjava?"

"Will…" a voice called weakly from the closet. Scrambling over a shattered lamp table, he picked his way over to a faint, mewing voice coming from under a saucepan.

"Kirjava?" he said, pulling the pan up to reveal the other half of his soul cleaning her injured paw. "What the hell happened here?"

"Oh this?" she asked, looking around the chaos. "Bunch of thugs came in and trashed the place, but that's not important right now…"

"N-not important?!?!?" Will cried incredulously. "What could possibly be more important than this?"

Kirjava sat up straight, looking up at her human. "Laura came home today with boy."

Will stiffened. "Do I really want to know what went on here?"

"It's not what they did, its who they brought with them."

"And who, pray tell, is that?"

Kirjava smirked that smug little smirk she did when she knew more than Will did. "Do the names Pantheos and Kameo mean anything to you?"

* * *

"Belacqua?" Luke echoed the mighty bear's question.

"Is your name Belacqua?" the bear clarified.

"N-no, it's Luke."

The bear growled and turned to face Laura. "Your name is Parry, is it not?"

Laura looked up at the bear king in shock. "Yes, but…"

Iorek nodded in a satisfied manner. "How did I know? Simple: that gaze you fixed me with has been fixed on me before by a boy by the name of William Parry."

"How do you know my dad?" Laura said, now completely bewildered.

"Yeah and who's this Belacqua guy…sir?" he added tentatively.

Iorek turned to his guards. "You are all dismissed except for Soren. I have pressing matters to discuss with these humans."

All the bears bowed and filed out of the hall except for the youngest bear who continued to eye the two warily. Iorek made his way back to his throne, leaning back in the massive chair and continuing to eye them thoughtfully.

"I will answer you both in turn for your questions are interlinked like the rings in a coat of mail." Taking a draught of water from a goblet beside him he began his story.

"I first heard the name Belacqua when I was in the employ of a Norwegian barkeep in the town of Trollsend. I had been robbed of my throne and my armor by a deceitful gang of townsfolk so the only work fit for a bear like myself was low grade metallurgy for slobbering drunks"

* * *

"It's getting kinda late," Pan said, noting the clock on the wall. "Don't ya think Luke should be home by now?"

Lyra looked up from her notebook. "I suppose so. I wonder where he's gone off to?"

"Well, why don't we ask the aleithometer?" Pan said, going into Lyra's rucksack and producing the velvet clad bundle in his teeth.

Lyra graciously accepted the package and began to pose her question. "_Where…is…my…son? _

The needle swung back and forth in rapid succession and as the answer came back, Lyra nearly dropped the device as it read,

"_Svalbard" _

* * *

"One day, a band of gyptians came to ask my aid in a matter of war. Being without my armor I could hardly do anything about it. Then, a child named Belacqua told me that my armor was being held in the district office of the Magisterium. As soon as I got it back, I swore a pledge to that girl to serve her in her crusade."

* * *

"What?!"

"Its true, Will! They both had them, walking right beside them!"

Will sat down on the splintered remains of what was once his kitchen table. "But that must mean…no, it can't be…"

"Whether it can be or not, it has happened. After that a gang of thugs broke in and Laura and, I think his name was Luke, took off. I proceeded to make a nuisance of myself until they up and left and now here we are."

"But where are they now?" Will asked.

"Well," Kirjava said, surveying the path of destruction that led out their front door and down the street. "It shouldn't be too hard to follow them…"

"I am ashamed to say that the girl was captured by Samoyed bandits and taken to an evil place. I followed, along with the Gyptians and liberated those who were trapped there. In the chaos, I had to escape with the child by air balloon." The king paused to take another draught from his goblet. "Things got rough and the child was thrown from the balloon, right into the palace of Iofur Rankison"

"That's impossible; we just saw him a few hours ago!"

Lyra drained her glass of Tokay in one swift gulp. "I don't know how…its never wrong…but how could he…oh Pan…."

"What do we do?" Pan was scurrying up and down the table frantically. "What do we do?"

If Lyra hadn't witnessed the destruction of God Himself, she would have said it was divine inspiration that caused her to remember the words of an old Texan aeronaut.

"_Lyra, child." _Lee Scoresby once said. "_If you ever find yourself on some dang fool venture and don't know where to go or what to do, you get yourself an aeronaut, an armored bear and a whole mess of armored piercin' bullets." _

"Lyra?"

Lyra snapped out of her trance and looked down at Pan who was looking up at her quizzically.

"Come on, Pan" Lyra said, springing up and going to the coat closet.

"Where are we going now?" Pan asked as Lyra emerged in a fur lined excursion jacket with a wooden box under her arm. The box contained a long barreled pistol that Iorek managed to salvage from Lee's body. Lyra never thought she would have any use for it; then again she never thought her son would be stranded at the top of the world.

"Well, pardner," she said in her best Texan drawl, stuffing the gun haphazardly in her coat pocket. "We're going to get ourselves an aeronaut."

* * *

"I approached the fortress, expecting to be torn to ribbons, only to find the girl out to meet me. She was distraught. When I asked her why, she said it was because she tricked the false king into fighting me in single combat. I was astonished to hear that a bear, not only _could _be tricked but actually _was _by a twelve year old girl."

* * *

"Eriksson's Bar and Grill" Will clicked his tongue in disappointment as he surveyed the ruined store front. "Always liked that place."

"Mutant bounty hunters are tracking down Laura and Pantheos and all you're worried about is that stupid pub!" Kirjava bristled.

"Sorry."

Kirjava shook her head as they followed the trail of shattered store fronts and cracked asphalt. "I've always thought you were a little cold when it comes to Laura."

"Hang on." Will said, stopping in the middle of the street. "What d'you mean by that?"

"Nothing," Kirjava muttered darkly.

"No, go on! Let's hear what you've been dying to say!"

"You want to know what I think?" Kirjava glared up at Will with unparalleled ferocity. "Alright then, here it is! You still blame yourself for what happened with Emily and Laura's a bitter reminder of the fact that you were in love with Lyra but you got some other girl knocked up in the mean time! Everything about her reminds you of a fragment of your past you refuse to let go!" Kirjava was now in full blown rant mode.

"That's not…you didn't hear me right…" Will said looking away.

"She's got your father's eyes and your mother's hair. She's got Emily's skin: both of them burn like mad if they stay out too long. She's got your temper and your ferocity. She once decked a full grown varsity footballer because he tried to get in her jeans. You're so much alike so why do you keep shunning her?"

"It's more complicated than that…you don't know me…"

"Don't know you? Will, I AM YOU!!!" Kirjava. "I am you and I still don't know why you can't bear to see your own daughter! Why, Will? Why?"

"BECAUSE SHE'S NOT THERE!" Will exploded, grateful that the street was empty.

"What? What do you…"

"Every time I look at her I'm looking for Lyra. I want to see Lyra in her. No matter what she does, no matter how good it is I can't help but think "That's how Emily would have done it." Or "That's not how Lyra would have done it." You know how torn up I was when Emily left and its just…Laura reminds me so much of her that I…I…"

"Will…" Kirjava's eyes grew wide as she looked past him. "Look…"

Will turned around. At first, he saw nothing. Then, as he tilted his head sideways, he saw a ripple in the air that was all too familiar to him.

A portal to another world.

* * *

" I knew then that Belacqua did not befit a child like that." Iorek turned his eyes to face Luke.

"So I gave her a new name and that day Lyra Belacqua became Lyra Silvertongue."


	13. Act One Scene Eight

_Act One Scene Eight: Thorn _

_AN: On a completely unrelated note, my stepmom is having a baby. His name: Luke :) _

Luke blinked. Once, twice, three times as though he was trying to rid himself of some irritating pest in his eye. Kameo pawed at his leg gently, trying to snap him out of his blank stare.

"Luke?" Laura said, staring uncertainly at her new friend. "Are you okay?"

"No…" Luke said, distantly

"I know this is a lot to handle but…"

"That's not what I meant!" he snapped. Luke turned to Iorek. "I'm sorry, King Iorek…you must be mistaken."

The younger bear Iorek had referred to as Soren scoffed. "How many other Silvertongues are there?"

"My mum said a Samoyed shaman gave it to her for helping him negotiate a fishing contract. She's never been out of England in her life!"

Iorek looked at Luke with something that resembled pity. "Whatever she told you…she lied."

Luke started to say something several times before finally clamming up, glaring at the bear king with pure loathing. Without warning, he turned on his heel and stomped off, Kameo nipping closely. Soren growled and made to go after him but the king shook his head.

Laura looked up at Iorek who simply nodded. She followed the sound of Luke's steps echoing off the ancient marble and ice until she found him, standing against a balcony looking over the courtyard. Laura was about to say something when Pantheos nipped her hand for the second time. Her questioning glance was answered with a shake of his spotted head.

She watched him for a bit, snow lightly powdering his dark hair as he gazed out across the frosty wasteland. For the longest time, he said nothing. Finally, in a voice so quiet Laura wondered if he was addressing her at all, he said "It…it doesn't make any sense."

"I'm sure she had her reasons." Laura said, trying to be helpful.

"What?" he whispered.

Laura, getting tired of talking to his back, moved up to stand beside him. "Well…would you have believed her?"

"Of course I would have!" he said indignantly. Laura shot him a deadpan expression. "Maybe…"

"Exactly. If your mum came home and said all that _he _just said…"

"I know, I know…" he said exasperatedly. He was silent for a moment before saying, "He said something about your dad."

"Yeah, so?"

"So…I'm starting to think that there's more to your dad than what you think."

"Really?" Laura said in mock astonishment. "Whatever gave you that impression? Was it the evil knife or the talking cat that told you that?"

* * *

The Oxford docks weren't a place you'd want to be caught lost in after dark. The mazes of shipping crates, open markets and clamor of hundreds of different tongues made it a perfect haven for underworld goons. Anyone who made their living in the east district had to be completely ruthless to survive.

Fortunately the clamor and commotion that usually masked robberies, extortion and worse crimes also masked the location of a gap in the air, no more than a yard across. It was plainly obvious to anyone who looked closely but no one in the docks looked closely. There was always someone to rip off and holes in the air were simply not of interest to your average Oxford townie.

So no one noticed as a large, multicolored cat stepped tentatively through. She sniffed the air before retreating back to be joined by a man with dark eyes, surveying the chaos with intense interest.

The presence of animal souls walking beside humans cause William Parry's heart to clench in a way he had almost forgotten. He glanced down at Kirjava who shot him the same glance. It couldn't be…could it?

"Be careful." Was all she said before they set out into the fray.

* * *

A thick snow cloud was kicking up over the plains of Svalbard. The fresh morning's powder got pulverized as something completely alien to the bears rolled across the plains. It was moving too fast to be ghasts and it left thick bite marks in the permafrost in the wake of the cloud

The bear sentries looked at each other. This was new.

* * *

Luke and Laura entered the throne room again to see Iorek and Soren conversing with a bear sentry. Iorek growled and the bear ran off again.

"What's going on?" Pantheos asked

"Something has been spotted on the plains." The king grabbed his helm and placed it firmly on his temple. "Someone has called a parley."

* * *

It had been nearly eighteen years since Lyra had set foot in the docks. Her first impression was that it was bigger, noisier and more crowded than she remembered. She didn't remember quite so many gambling houses, bars or brothels either. And the last time she was here, she didn't remember so many people looking like they wanted to kill her.

Pan curled tightly around her neck and Lyra gripped the butt of the gun under her coat. Nevertheless, the docks were the best place to go if you wanted a transport with no questions asked. She would just have to be careful, that's all.

* * *

"Argh! This is hopeless!" Will growled after nearly an hour of looking around the docks for anything that would indicate that the men had been here.

Kirjava shared his distain. "Even if they were here, we'd never find them in all this…"

She stopped as a dingy building labeled _Northern Access Travel Co. _or rather what was left of it, came into view. The front door had been blown completely off its hinges and now lay in shards across the street, much as their own door had been. A throng to rubberneckers still flocked around the entrance despite the fact that whatever had made the marks was long gone.

"Well, we can start there." Will said.

* * *

"What's the name of this place we're looking for again?" Pan asked, scanning the crowd.

"The Northern Access Travel Co. A couple scholars said it was a good place to go for…discreet traveling." Lyra said.

* * *

His hair billowed in the icy wind as he surveyed the castle that stood ready to destroy him and his companions. The bears had armed their fire throwers with bubbling hot pitch. All it would take was a word and they would be destroyed.

Seferax was not worried though. This wasn't the first, nor would it be the last time he had been threatened with death. He knew that the bears would honor the parley. Everything was going according to plan

He turned back to the rest of his party to await the envoy from Svalbard. Each had been hand selected for this kind of work he specialized in.

There was Braxas; tall dark and powerful. Seferax had never found an explanation for his freakish strength but the only thing that mattered was that he was good at breaking things and people. Next to him was the slight, but powerful Ssaxmara. Her knowledge of the arcane arts had proven useful in the past. Finally, there was the massive Inferiax who blended the talents of his co-workers perfectly. The fact that his right arm and left leg were constructed out of orichalcum infused metals didn't hurt either.

Seferax turned back to Svalbard to see a small party of bears trekking across the snow accompanied by…

He smiled to himself. Yes everything was going just as planned.

* * *

Laura shielded her eyes against the harsh glare as she tried to sight the source of all this commotion but the whiteout of the sun against snow nearly blinded her. The bears surrounding them on the battlements looked ill at ease, growling and fidgeting as the king and Soren trekked across the field to meet them.

A cloud obscured the sun and as the figures in the snow became visible she shared a gasp with Luke. Three were alien but one stood out like a sore thumb covered in silver.

"How…how…?" Luke desperately tried to finish a thought but the words died in his mouth

"They must have found a way between worlds…" Pantheos muttered

"Okay…okay…let's not panic." Laura said, rationally. "We're in here, surrounded by hundreds of bears and walls made of marble and their out there with…"

"A man who can break our bones like toothpicks." Kameo shivered

"Right," Laura said as Iorek turned away from the strangers to roar something up to the guards on the wall who turned and plodded towards the humans. "But their still out there and we're in here! And the bears aren't going to give us up that easily."

The guard tapped Laura on the shoulder. "The king says the trespassers want to talk to you."

Laura turned to Luke. 'Care to panic with me?"

* * *

"Will, wait." Kirjava said jumping in front of Will.

"What?"

"If those thugs booked passage, then we need to follow them."

"Yeah, so?"

"Well…we don't have any money."

"That's not true," Will said, reaching for his wallet. "We have…oh…"

"Well now what do we do?"

"I don't know!" Will said hopelessly. "It's not like sacks of gold just fall out of the…"

He was cut off as a huge burlap sack crashed to the ground beside him causing Kirjava to jump about a foot in the air.

"No way." Will said, looking up to see if there were any scaffoldings or buildings that it could have fallen from or if their was anyone looking down to see where their sack had fallen. There was no one.

Will tentatively reached out a hand to pull at the string that bound the bag together. A glint caught his eye. Tentatively, he reached a hand in to produce a heavy gold coin.

"Way." Kirjava said.

"But…how?" Will spluttered

"Let's not look this gift horse in the mouth…" Kirjava said, lumping up and making for the door.

* * *

"Just two?"

"Yes please." Lyra said.

The ticket taker looked the woman over. She wasn't the usual type of passenger to use the NAC for travel purposes. But, as long as she was able to pay…

He stamped her passport. "Alright, seat 32C, upper tier, 8:20 to Oslo."

"Thank you." Lyra said, quickly

"I have to say, we don't get many passengers going up that way but today…"

"What?" Pan asked.

"Well you two are the third party today. There were these big blokes that caught the first flight this morning and just now a man booked the same passage."

"Did you catch his name?" Lyra asked, uneasily.

"Yeah, a Mr…" he looked down at his books. "Ah! Mr. Underhill! Seat 32A. Dangerous looking fellow. That cat he was with gave me a look that could have peeled stone when I asked about his hand."

"What was wrong with it?" Pan asked again

"Well…not my place to say. Ask him yourself if you're so interested. He's waiting in the flight lounge."

* * *

Will hastily jammed a glove over his left hand. Damn ticket taker asked too many damn questions. Fortunately his bag also contained a pair of gloves and (much to Will's shock) a heavy revolver. He had stuffed the bag into his coat and proceeded to make himself inconspicuous. Kirjava curled up under his coat and fell asleep.

Will jerked his head up as the door opened. A woman in a long, red coat entered from the ticket area, clutching at her coat and scanning the room suspiciously. Her eyes settled on him and he did the best he could not to look back despite a powerful urge to do so. There was something so familiar about her…

She took a seat across the room from him, crossing her legs on the bench and pulling a book out of her bag to help pass the time. But as she read…

* * *

She couldn't take her eyes off of him. There was something so familiar about the tall dark stranger. His eyes that swept the room in a bored manner held a familiar power that seemed terrifying and, at the same time, safe. She didn't know why she…

* * *

Couldn't stop looking at him. The woman would try to read her book, tucking her hair behind her ears (_That _seemed familiar too) and stroking something in her coat which he thought was her daemon. But every time he made a round around the room with his eyes, he would come back to see her…

* * *

Looking at him. He had caught her looking at him. She was overcome with a powerful desire to make conversation with him but she didn't know what to say. All she could think of was

"Going north, eh?"

The woman had spoken at last. Will glanced up to see her studying him thoughtfully.

Will didn't want to attract too much attention so he responded as crisply as possible.

"Obviously."

Annoyance flashed across the woman's face and will immediately regretted being…

* * *

_So rude! _Lyra thought. All she was doing was making conversation! But she pressed on. "Not many people head up towards Noroway. Business or pleasure?" As she asked, she saw a look of…

* * *

Fear. Fear gripped at Will's heart. Why was this woman asking about his plans? Was she dangerous to him? Kirjava stirred in his coat as Will gripped the butt of his gun. "I could ask you the same." He saw the woman stir as…

* * *

She reached a hand inside her coat. Now he was asking too many questions. She felt the butt of the pistol and unclipped the clip holding it in place. He might be a threat. In a slightly colder voice, she responded. "I'm looking for somebody." She watched as…

* * *

He sat up a little stiffer. "As am I." Was she the one who had come to his house? He looked down at Kirjave who was tense against his side. They would have to be quick.

"Ten…" and he heard her say…

* * *

"Nine" as she heard him say…

* * *

"Eight." He said

* * *

"Seven" she said

* * *

"Six" he said

* * *

"Five" she said

* * *

"Four" he said

* * *

"Three" she said.

* * *

"Two"

* * *

"One"

* * *

Will sprang to his feet and pulled the pistol out of his jacket. Kirjava leapt onto the floor. Will looked up to see himself staring down the barrel of the longest pistol he had ever seen.

The strange woman and the strange man eyed each other apprehensively. They were so busy eying each other, they had totally ignored their daemons.

They were eying each other suspiciously. But the longer they stared, the more they realized they were looking into the face of the only one they had ever loved. Kirjava was the first to find her voice.

"Pan?"

Pan hardly dared to believe it. "Kirjava?'

Will looked down to his daemon and then back at the woman who was doing the same thing. Finally, their eyes locked.

And, for the second time in the history of the universes, the entire world held its breath…


End file.
